LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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Qass 
Book. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



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BITS OF ORE FROM RICH MINES 



{patriotic Buoo^ts 



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FIRST IN WAR. i 
FIRST IN PEACE J 


1 



FRANKLIN WASHINGTON JEFFERSON 
WEBSTER LINCOLN BEECHER 

Gathered by John R. Howard 



NEW YORK: 
FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT 



0CT4-IEsJr ) 



C^gerj^ 



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Copyright ix ,899 by Fords, Ho^VARD, & Hulbert. 






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NOTE. 

There can be no question but that war is 
a stimulant of patriotism. A majority of 
the men whose words are here gathered 
wrote or spoke under that tremendous pres- 
sure. And yet, the sum of their counsels is 
to avoidance of war, towards aspiration for 
a national greatness developing out of the 
arts of peace. 

Naturally, a reader familiar with the writ- 
ings of any of them will miss here many 
favorite passages : the scope of the compila- 
tion being necessarily limited. The attentive 
^,ader, however, will be interested to trace 
srein the vital germs of our entire American 
story, the swift and strong expansion of 
hich furnished the world with unceasing 
wonder. Webster's pictures of the Colonial 
settlements: the sentiments of Franklin, 
Washington and Jefferson, showing their 
love of the Mother-Country, indignation at 
her oppressions of the Colonies, ardor for 



" Note. 

Revolutionary success, sagacity in framing 
the new government, wisdom in its adminis- 
tration, and appeals for increasing devotion 
to the Union, in which alone they found the 
source of permanent strength and prosperity, 
—these all stand out with striking distinct- 
ness. There follows the intermediate 
period of incubating Nullification and Seces- 
sion, with Webster's teachings of national 
honor in finance, and his grand arguments 
for the Constitution and the Union, so 
powerful in consolidating the national senti- 
ment, in preparation for the war whose 
horrors he foretold. 

After this, the deluge of Secession and 
Rebellion, set forth in Lincoln's clear, terse 
English and with his inimitable force of 
logic and good sense. The volume closes 
with Beecher, who ranged from the Com- 
promise day of Clay in 1S50, through the 
Anti-slavery struggles, the War, and Recon- 
struction, down to the death of Grant in 
1885— a splendid array of reason and elo- 
quence. 
The notable thing about these men— rev- 



Note. iii 

olutionary prophets all, except Webster — is 
their conservatism, both in thought and in 
expression. Even their most strenuous ap- 
peals to sentiment are based on a rational 
setting forth of facts, compelling confidence 
in their conclusions. Their utterances of 
patriotic fervor are at the opposite pole 
from the demagogy of partisanship. And, 
aside from their inculcations of national 
honor, virtue, justice, the education of in- 
telligence, freedom from foreign entangle- 
ments, and independent friendliness to 
other nations, perhaps the most valuable 
lesson for the present generation is a realiza- 
tion of the growth and importance of the 
federal union of the several States. It began 
weakly ; was subject to attack, first insidi- 
ous, then violent ; survived after a mighty 
struggle ; and now seems to us a matter of 
course, as permanently established: — but, 
from the outset to the end, whether for peace- 
ful growth or warlike force, these clear-eyed 
prophets saw its value, and proclaimed it 
with effective iteration. While yet the 
States, like the planets, hold each its in- 



iv Note. 

dependent orbit, the system stands for " Our | 
Country, our whole Country, one and indi- 
visible." 

For the text of the excerpts, the compiler 
has depended chiefly on the following: 
Franklin,— C^w//^/^ Works, Ed. by John ji 
Bigelow (Putnam) ; Washington, — Writ- \ 
ings,.Y.di. by Worthington A. Ford (Put- \ 
nam) ; Jefferson,— Writings, Ed. by 
Paul L. Ford (Putnam) ; Webster,— 6^r^^/ 
Speeches, Ed. by E. C. Whipple (Little, I 
Brown & Co.) ; Lincoln, Complete Works, \ 
Ed. by John G. Nicolay and John Hay j 
(Century Co.) ; Beecher, Patriotic Ad- \ 
dresses, Ed. by J. R. Howard (Fords, How- j 
ard, & Hulbert.) i 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE, 

Benjamin Franklin: 1706-1790 . i 

George Washington: 1732-1799 . 17 

Thomas Jefferson: 1743-1826 . 51 

Daniel Webster : 1782-1852 . . 79 

Abraham Lincoln : 1809 -1865 , . 123 

Henry Ward Beecher : 1813-1887 

159 to 204 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. ^ 

The sage whom two worlds claim ; the man, dis- 
puted by the history of the sciences and the history of 
empires. . . .one of the greatest men who ever served 
the cause of liberty and of philosophy.— Mirabeau, 
in the Frettch National Assembly. 

To Lord Kames. 

London, January, 1760. 
No one can more sincerely rejoice than I 
do, on the reduction of Canada, and this not 
merely as I am a colonist, but as I am a 
Briton. I have long been of the opinion, 
that the foundations of the future grandeur 
and stability of the British Empire lie in 
America : and though like other foundations, 
they are low and little seen, they are never- 
theless broad, and strong enough to support 
the greatest political structure human wis- 
dom has ever yet erected. I am therefore 
by no means for restoring Canada [to the 
French], If we keep it, all the Country 
from St. Lawrence to Mississippi will in 
another century be filled with British people, 



Patriotic Nuggets. 



Britain itself will become vastly more popu- 
lous, by the immense increase of its com- 
merce ; the Atlantic Sea will be covered 
with your trading ships ; and your naval 
powers, thence continually increasing, will 
extend your influences round the whole globe 
and over the world ! 

To M. DUBOURG. 

London, October 2, 1770. 
We of the colonies have never insisted 
that we ought to be exempt from contribut- 
ing to the common expenses necessary to sup- 
port the prosperity of the empire. We only 
assert that, having parliaments of our own, 
and not having representatives in that of 
Great Britain, our parliaments are the only 
judges of what we can and what we ought 
to contribute in this case ; and that the 
English Parliament has no right to take our 
money without our consent. ... I have, 
indeed, no doubt that the parliament of 
England will finally abandon its pretensions 
and leave us to the peaceable enjoyment of 
our rights and privileges. 



Benjamm Franklhi. 



To Thomas Gushing, Speaker of the 
Assembly of Massachusetts Bay. Re- 
porting his conversation with Lord 
Dartmouth. — London, 6 May, 1773. 
Were I as much an EngHshman as I am 
an American, and ever so desirous of estab- 
Hshing the authority of Parliament, I protest 
to your Lordship, I cannot conceive of a 
single step the Parliament can take to in- 
crease it that will not tend to diminish it, 
and after abundance of mischief they must 
finally lose it. 

To Thomas Gushing. — 

London, 5 Jan., 1774. 
I shall continue to do all I possibly can this 
winter to make an accommodation of our 
differences ; but my hopes are small. Divine 
Providence first infatuates the power it de- 
signs to ruin. 

To the Printer of the London Public 
Advertiser (Anonymously sent), 1774. 
Surely the great commerce of this nation 

with the Americans is of too much import- 



Patriotic Nuggets. 



ance to be risked in a quarrel which has no 
foundation but ministerial pique and obsti- 
nacy ! . . . . Did ever any tradesman succeed 
who attempted to drub customers into his 
shop ? 

To James Bowdoin. — 

London, 25 Feb., 1775, 

If we continue firm and united, and reso- 
lutely persist in the non-consumption agree- 
ment, this adverse ministry cannot probably 
stand another year .... The eyes of all 
Christendom are upon us, and our honor as 
a people is become a matter of the utmost 
consequence to be taken care of. If we 
tamely give up our rights in this contest, a 
century to come will not restore us in the 
opinion of the world ; we shall be stamped 
with the character of dastards, poltroons 
and fools. . . . Present inconveniences are 
therefore to be born with fortitude, and bet- 
ter times expected. 

To Mr. Strahan (King's Printer).— 
Philadelphia, 7 July, 1775. 

Mr. Strahan : — You are a member of 
Parliament, and one of that majority which 



Benjamin Franklin. 5 

has doomed my country to destruction. 
You have begun to burn our towns and 
murder our people. Look upon your hands ; 
they are stained with the blood of your re- 
lations ! You and I were long friends ; you 
are now my enemy, and I am 
Yours, 

B. Franklin. 

To Lord Howe.— 

Philadelphia, July 20, 1776. 
To me it seems, that neither the obtain- 
ing or retaining of any trade, however valu- 
able soever, is an object for which men may 
justly spill each other's blood : that the true 
and sure means of extending and securing 
com.merce is the goodness and cheapness of 
commodities : and that the profit of no trade 
can ever be equal to the expense of compell- 
ing it and of holding it, by fleets and 
armies. 

To Samuel Cooper.— 

Paris, May i, 1777. 
Those who live under arbitrary power do 
nevertheless approve of liberty, and wish for 



Patriotic Nuggets. 



it ; they almost despair of receiving it in 
Europe ; they read the translations of our 
separate Colony constitutions with rap- 
ture : . . . . Hence it is a common observa- 
tion here that our cause is the cause of all 
mankind, and that we are fighting for their 
Hberty in defending our own. It is a glori- 
ous task assigned us by Providence, which 
has, I trust, given us spirit and virtue equal 
to it, and will at last crown it with success. 

To Chas. de Weissentein [a secret 
agent of England]. — Passy, July i, 1778. 

You think we flatter ourselves and are 
deceived into an opinion that England must 
acknowledge our independency. We, on the 
other hand, think you flatter yourselves in 
imagining such an acknowledgment a vast 
boon. . . . We have never asked it of you ; 
we only tell you that you can have no treaty 
with us but as an independent state ; and 
you may please yourselves and your chil- 
dren with the rattle of the right to govern 
us, as long as you have done with your 
King's being King of France, without giving 



Benjamm Franklin. 



us the least concern, if you do not attempt 
to exercise it. 

To James Lovell.— 

Passy, July 22, 1778. 
The taking of unfair advantage of a 
neighbor's necessities, though attended with 
temporary success, always breeds bad blood. 

Information to Those Who Would 
Remove to America.— 1782. 

In Europe it [birth] has indeed its value ; 
but it is a commodity that cannot be carried 
to a worse market than America, where 
people do not inquire concerning a stranger, 
What z's he ? but, What can he do} If he 
has any useful art, he is welcome. 

Industry and constant employment are 
great preservatives of the morals and the 
virtue of a nation. 

To THE Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Ship- 
ley. — Passy, March 17, 1783. 
Let us now forgive and forget. Let each 
country seek its advancement in its own in- 
ternal advantages of arts and agriculture, 



Patriotic Nuggets. 



not in retarding and preventing the prosper- 
ity of the other. America will, with God's 
blessing, become a great and happy coun- 
try ; and England, if she has at length gained 
wisdom, will have gained something more 
valuable, and more essential to her pros- 
perity, than all she has lost. 

To Robert R. Livingstone.— 

Passy, 22 July, 1783. 
I have seen so much embarrassment and 
so little advantage in the restraining and 
compulsive systems, that I feel myself 
strongly inclined to believe that a state 
which leaves her ports open to all the w'orld 
upon equal terms will by that means have 
foreign commodities cheaper, sell its own 
productions dearer, and be, as a whole, the 
most prosperous. 

[Our constitutions] are much admired by 
the politicians here. It is particularly a mat- 
ter of wonder that, in the midstof a cruel war 
raging in the bowels of our country, our 
sages should have the firmness of mind to 
sit down calmly and form such complete 
plans of government. 



Benjami?t Franklin. 



To Sir Joseph Banks.— 

Passy, 27 July, 1783. 
In my opinion there never was a good 
war or a bad peace. What vast additions 
to the conveniences and comforts of living 
might mankind have acquired, if the money 
spent on wars had been employed in works 
of public utility ! 

To David Hartley (One of the 
English Peace Commissioners). — 

Passy, 6 Sept., 1783. 

We are more thoroughly an enlightened 
people, with respect to our political interests, 
than perhaps any other under heaven. 
Every man among us reads. . . . Our do- 
mestic misunderstandings, when we have 
them, are of small extent. . . . The great 
body of intelligence among our people sur- 
rounds and overpowers our petty dissensions, 
as the sun's great mass of fire diminishes 
and destroys his spots. Do not, therefore, 
any longer delay the evacuation of New 
York, in the vain hope of a new revolution 
in your favor. 



Pafriotic Nuggets, 



There is no truth more clear to me than 
this, that the great interest of our two coun- i 
tries is a thorough reconciliation. 

To JOSIAH QUINCY. — i 

Passy, II Sept., 1783. I 

I lament with you the many mischiefs, the i 

injustice, the corruption of manners, etc., \ 

that attended a depreciating currency. It is i 

some consolation to me, that I washed my [ 

hands of that evil by predicting it in Con- ; 
gress, and proposing means that would have 

been effectual to prevent it, if they had been j 

adopted. I 

To THE President of Congress.— ] 
Passy, 13 Sept., 1783. | 

Our safety consists in a steady adherence , 
to our friends, and our reputation in a faith- j 
ful regard to treaties. 

To Robert Morris. — | 
Passy, 5 Dec, 1783. 1 
I see, in some resolutions of town meet- 
ings, a remonstrance against giving Congress | 
the power to take, as they call it, the people's ! 



Benjamin Franklin. 



money out of their pockets, though only to 
pay the interest and principal of debts duly 
contracted. They seem to mistake the point. 
Money, justly due from the people, is their 
creditors' money, and no longer the money 
of the people. 

The Impolicy of War. 

I agreed with you perfectly in your dis- 
approbation of war .... I think it 
wrong in point of human prudence, for 
whatever advantage one nation would obtain 
from another. ... it would be much 
cheaper to purchase such advantage with 
ready money, than to pay the expense of ac- 
quiring it by war. ... It seems to me that 
if statesmen had a little more arithmetic, or 
were more accustomed to calculations, wars 
would be much less frequent. 

To Chas. Thomson, Secretary of Congress. 

— Passy, 13 May, 1783. 

Thus the great and hazardous enterprise 

we have been engaged in, is, God be 

praised, happily completed, an event I 



12 



hardly expected I should live to see. A few I 
years of peace, well employed, will restore 
and increase our strength, but our future 
safety will depend on our union and virtue. 

To B. Vaughan,— 

Passy, 14 Tvlarch, 1785. . 

Justice is as strictly due between neighbor j 
nations as between neighbor citizens. A ' 
highwayman is as much a robber when he : 
plunders in a gang as when single ; and a na- j 
tion that makes an unjust war is only a -j 
great gang. \ 

Address to the Constitutional | 
Convention.— Sept., 1787. j 
I confess that I do not entirely approve of j 
this Constitution at present ; but. Sir, I am ■ 
not sure I shall never approve of it ; for, 
having lived long, I have experienced many \ 
instances of being obliged, by better infor- 
mation and fuller consideration, to change 1 
opinions even on important subjects which I 
I once thought right, but found to be other- 
wise. . . , Though many private persons , 



Benjamin Frankl/n. 13 

think almost as highly of their own infalUbil- 
ity as that of their [religious] sect, few ex- 
press it so naturally as a certain French 
lady, who in a little dispute with her sister, 
said : " But I meet with nobody but myself 
that is always in the right." In these sen- 
timents, Sir, I agree to this Constitu- 
tion. ... [I] doubt, too, whether any con- 
vention we can obtain may be able to make 
a better Constitution. . . . On the whole, 
Sir, I cannot help expressing a wish that 
every member of the convention who may 
still have objections to it would with me 
on this occasion doubt a little of his own in- 
fallibility, and, to make majiifest our una- 
nimity, put his name to this instrument. 

To Mrs. Jane Mecum.— 

Philadelphia, 26 Nov., 1788. 

I have long been accustomed to receive 
more blame, as well as more praise, than I 
have deserved. It is the lot of every public 
man, and I leave one account to balance the 
other. 



14 Patriotic Ntiggets. 

Prospect for Emigrants to America. 

No rewards are given to encourage new 
settlers to come among us, whatever degree 
of property they may bring with them, nor 
any exemptions from common duties. Our 
country offers to strangers nothing but a 
good climate, fertile soil, wholesome air, free 
government, wise laws, liberty, a good 
people to live among, and a hearty welcome. 
Those Europeans who have these or greater 
advantages at home, would do well to stay 
where they are. 

The Ancient Jews and the Anti- 
Federalists. 
One would have thought that the appoint- 
ment of men [Moses and Aaron] who had 
distinguished themselves in procuring the 
liberty of their nation, and had hazarded 
their lives in openly opposing the will of a 
powerful monarch who would have retained 
that nation in slavery, might have been an 
appointment acceptable to a grateful people ; 
and that a constitution framed for them by 
the Deity himself, might on that account have 



Benja^nin Franklin. 15 

been secure of a universally welcome recep- 
tion. Yet there were, in every one of the 
thirteen tribes, some discontented, restless 
spirits, who were continually exciting them 
to reject the proposed new government. . . . 
I beg I may not be understood to infer, 
that our general convention was divinely in- 
spired when it formed the new federal con- 
stitution, merely because that constitution 
has been unreasonably and violently opposed; 
yet I must own I have so much faith in the 
general government of the world by Provi- 
dence that I can hardly conceive a transac- 
tion of such momentous importance to the 
welfare of millions now existing and to exist 
in the posterity of a great nation, should 
be suffered to pass without being in some 
degree influenced, guided and governed by 
that omnipotent, omnipresent and beneficent 
Ruler in whom all inferior spirits live, move 
and have their being. 

To Samuel Moore. — 

Philadelphia, 5 Nov., 1789. 
I hope the fire of liberty, which you men- 
tion as spreading itself over Europe, will act 



1 6 Patriotic Nuggets. 

upon the inestimable rights of man, as 
common fire does upon gold ; purify without 
destroying them ; so that a lover of liberty 
may find a cou7itry in any part of Christen- 
dom. 

On the Abolition of Slavery.— 

9 November, 1789. 

Slavery is such an atrocious debasement 

of human nature, that its very extirpation, if 

not performed with solicitous care, may 

sometimes open a source of serious evils. 

To M. LeRoy.— 

Philadelphia, Nov. 13, 1789. 
Our new Constitution is now established, 
and has an appearance that promises per- 
manency ; but in this world nothing can be 
said to be certain, except death and taxes. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

" Illustrious man ! deriving honor less from the 
splendor of his situation than from the dignity of his 
mind ; before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into 
insignificance."— Charlks James Fox, in the British 
Parliament. 

To George William Fairfax, in 
England. May 31, 1775. 
The once happy and peaceful plains of 
America are either to be drenched with 
blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alterna- 
tive ! But can a virtuous man hesitate in 
his choice } 

To THE President of the Congress, 
upon his appointment as Commander- 
in-Chief. June 16, 1775. 
Mr. President : — Though I am truly 
sensible of the high honor done me in this 
appointment, yet I feel great distress from 



Patriotic Nuggets. 



a consciousness that my abilities and mili- 
tary experience may not be equal to the 
extensive and important trust. However, 
as the Congress desire it, I will enter upon 
the momentous duty and exert every power 
I possess in their service, for the support of 
the glorious cause. ... As to pay, Sir, I 
beg leave to assure the Congress that as no 
pecuniary consideration could have tempted 
me to accept this arduous employment at 
the expense of my domestic ease and happi- 
ness, I do not wish to make any profit from 
it. I will keep an exact account of my 
expenses. Those I doubt not they will dis- 
charge, and that is all I desire. 

First Order to Continental Army. 

July 4, 1775. 
It is hoped that all distinctions of Colo- 
nies will be laid aside ; so that one and the 
same spirit may animate the whole, and the 
only contest be, who shall render, on this 
great and trying occasion, the most essential 
service to the great and common cause in 
which we are all engaged. 



George Was/izngton. 19 

Army Order: Prohibition of 
Gaming. 1776. 
At this time of public distress, men may 
have enough to do in the service of God and 
their country, v^'ithout abandoning them- 
selves to vice and immorality. It is a noble 
cause in which we are engaged : it is the 
cause of virtue and mankind ; every advan- 
tage and comfort to us and our posterity de- 
pend upon the vigor of our exertions ; in short 
Freedom or Slavery must be the result of our 
conduct ; there can, therefore, be no greater 
inducement to men to behave well. 

Army Order. 

July 31, 1776. 
It is with great concern, the General under- 
stands that Jealousies, etc, are arisen among 
the troops from the different Provinces, 
. . . The General most earnestly entreats 
the officers and soldiers to consider, . . . 
that all distinctions are sunk in the name of 
an American. To make this name honor- 
able, and to preserve the liberty of our 
Country, ought to be our only emulation. 



Pat7'iotic Nuggets. 



and he will be the best Soldier and the best 
Patriot, who contributes most to this 
glorious work, whatsoever be his station, or 
from whatsoever part of the Continent, he 
may come. 

To THE Congress. 1777. 
I find they [the Congress] have done me 
the honor to intrust me with powers in my 
military capacity, of the highest nature and 
almost unlimited in extent. Instead of 
thinking myself freed from all civil obliga- 
tions, by this mark of their confidence, I 
shall constantly bear in mind, that as the 
sword was the last resort for the preserva- 
tion of our liberties, so it ought to be the 
first thing laid aside, when those liberties are 
firmly established. 

To THE President of the Congress. 
Winter of Valley Forge. Dec. 23, 1777. 
I can assure those gentlemen [the Penn- 
sylvania Assembly], that it is a much easier 
and less distressing thing, to draw remon- 
strances in a comfortable room by a good 



George Washington. 21 

fireside, than to occupy a cold, bleak hill and 
sleep under frost and snow, without clothes 
or blankets. However, although they seem 
to have little feeling for the naked and dis- 
tressed soldiers, I feel superabundantly for 
them, and, from my soul, I pity those miser- 
ies, which it is neither in my power to relieve 
or prevent. 

It is for these reasons, therefore, that I 
have dwelt upon this subject ; and it adds not 
a little to my other difficulties and distress, to 
find, that much more is expected from me 
than is possible to be performed, and that 
upon the ground of safety and policy I am 
obliged to conceal the true state of the army 
from public view, and thereby expose myself 
to detraction and calumny. 

Letter to his agent, Lund Washing- 
ton, who had saved Mt. Vernon from 
destruction at the hands of the British, by 
furnishing them supplies. April 30, 1781. 
It would have been a less painful circum- 
stance to me to have heard, that in conse- 
quence of your non-compliance with their 



22 Patriotic Nuggets. 

request, they have burned my House and laid 
the Plantation in ruins. You ought to have 
considered yourself as my representative, 
and should have reflected on the bad ex- 
ample of communicating with the enemy, 
and making a voluntary offer of refresh- 
ments to thenTwith a view to prevent con- 
flagration. 

Reply to Col. Lewis Nicola, proposing 
that Washington should make himself 
King. May 22, 1782. 
With a mixture of great surprise and 
astonishment, I have read with attention 
the sentiments you have submitted to my 
perusal. Be assured. Sir, no occurrence in 
the course of the war has given me more 
painful sensations, than your information of 
there being such ideas existing in the army, 
as you have expressed, and I must view with 
abhorrence and reprehend with severity. . . . 
Let me conjure you, then, if you have any 
regard for your Country, concern for your- 
self or posterity, or respect for me, to banish 
these thoughts from your mind, and never 



George Washington. 



communicate, as from yourself or any one 
else, a sentiment of the like nature. 

To THE Governors of All tke States. 

June 8, 1783. 
The citizens of America, placed in the 
most enviable condition, as the sole lords 
and proprietors of a vast tract of continent, 
comprehending all the various soils and 
climates of the world, and abounding with 
all the necessaries and conveniences of life, 
are now, by the late satisfactory pacification, 
acknowledged to be possessed of absolute 
freedom and independency. They are, from 
this period, to be considered as the actors 
on a most conspicuous theatre, which seems 
to be peculiarly designated by Providence 
for the display of human greatness and 
felicity. 

The foundation of our empire v/as not 
laid in the gloomy age of ignorance and su- 
perstition : but at an epocha when the rights 
of mankind were better understood and 
more clearly defined, than at any former 
period. 



24 Patriotic Nuggets. 

There are four things, which, I humbly i 
conceive, are essential to the well-being, I | 
may even venture to say, to the existence of i 
the United States, as an independent power. ' 

First. An indissoluble union of the States 
under one federal head. 

Secondly. A sacred regard to public : 
justice. J 

Thirdly. The adoption of a proper peace ' 
establishment [of military defence] : and 1 

Fourthly. The prevalence of that pacific 1 
and friendly disposition among the people 
of the United States, which will induce them I 
to forget their local prejudices and policies ; 
to make those mutual concessions, which 
are requisite to the general prosperity ; and, j 
in some instances, to sacrifice their individ- i 
ual advantages to the interest of the com- i 
munity. 

These are the pillars on which the glorious 
fabric of our independency and national 
character must be supported. Liberty is the 
basis ; and whoever would dare to sap the 
foundation, or overturn the structure, under . 
whatever specious pretext he may attempt 



George WasJiington. 25 

it, will merit the bitterest execration, and the 
severest punishment which can be inflicted 
by his injured country. 

It is indispensable to the happiness of the 
individual States, that there should be 
lodged somewhere a supreme power to regu- 
late and govern the general concerns of the 
confederated republic, without which the 
Union cannot be of long duration. 

Whatever measures have a tendency to 
dissolve the Union, or contribute to violate 
or lessen the sovereign authority, ought to 
be considered as hostile to the liberty and 
independency of America and the authors of 
them treated accordingly. 

In this state of absolute freedom and per- 
fect security, who will grudge to yield a very 
little of his property to support the common 
interest of society, and insure the protection 
of government ?. . . . Where is the man to 
be found, who wishes to remain indebted 
for the defence of his own person and pro- 
perty, to the exertions, the bravery, and the 



26 Patriotic Nuggets. 

blood of others, without making one gener- 
ous effort to repay the debt of honor and 
gratitude? In what part of the continent 
shall we find any man, or body of men, who 
would not blush to stand up and propose 
measures, purposely calculated to rob the 
soldier of his stipend, and the public creditor 
of his due ? 



The militia of this country must be con- 
sidered as the palladium of our security, and 
the first effectual resort in case of hostil- 
ity. It is essential, therefore, that the same 
system should pervade the whole ; that the 
formation and discipline of the militia of the 
Continent should be absolutely uniform, and 
that the same species of arms, accouter- 
ments, and military apparatus should be in- 
troduced in every part of the United States. 
No one, who has not learned it from experi- 
ence, can conceive the difficulty, expense, 
and confusion, which result from a contrary 
system, or the vague arrangements which 
have hitherto prevailed. 



George Washington. 27 

First Inaugural Address. 

April 30, 1789. 
No people can be bound to acknowledge 
and adore the invisible hand, which conducts 
the affairs of men, more than the people of 
the United States. Every step, by which 
they have advanced to the character of an 
independent Nation, seems to have been 
distinguished by some token of providential 
agency. And, in the important revolution 
just accomplished in the system of their 
united government, the tranquil deliberations 
and voluntary consent of so many distinct 
communities, from which the event has 
resulted, cannot be compared with the means 
by which most governments have been es- 
tabhshed, without some return of pious 
gratitude along with an humble anticipation 
of the future blessings which the past seem 
to presage. 

There is no truth more thoroughly estab- 
lished, than that there exists in the economy 
and course of nature an indissoluble union 
between virtue and happiness, between duty 



Patriotic Nuggets. 



and advantage, between the genuine maxims 
of an honest and magnanimous policy, and 
the solid rewards of public prosperity and 
felicity ; since we ought to be no less per- 
suaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven 
can never be expected on a nation that dis- 
regards the eternal rules of order and right, 
which Heaven itself has ordained ; and since 
the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, 
and the destiny of the republican model of 
government, are justly considered as deeply, 
perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment 
intrusted to the hands of the American 
people. 

To Dr. David Stuart. 

June, 1790. 

If there was the same propensity in man- 
kind for investigating the motives, as there 
is for censuring the conduct of public char- 
acters, it would be found, that the censure 
so freely bestowed, is oftentimes unmerited 
and uncharitable. 



George Washmgton. 29 

To Dr. David Stuart. 

June, 1790, 
That there is a diversity of interests in the 
Union, none has denied. That this is the 
case also in every State, is equally certain ; 
and that it even extends to the counties of 
individual States, can be readily proved. . . . 
To constitute a dispute there must be two 
parties. To understand it well both parties, 
and all the circumstances, must be fully heard; 
and to accommodate difTerences, temper and 
mutual forbearance are requisite. Common 
danger brought the States into confederacy, 
and on their union our safety and importance 
depend. A spirit of accommodation was the 
basis of the present Constitution. 

First Annual Address to Congress. 
January 8, 1790. 
Among the many interesting objects, 
which will engage your attention, that of 
providing for the common defence will 
merit particular regard. To be prepared 
for war is one of the most effectual means 
of preserving peace. 



30 Patriotic Nuggets. 

A free people ought not only to be armed, 
but disciplined ; to which end a uniform and 
well-designated plan is requisite. 

To His Agent. 

November, 1790. 
I had rather have heard, that my repaired 
coach vi'as plain and elegant than rich and 

elegant. 

Second Annual Address to Congress. 

December 8, 1790. 
To the House of Representatives : 

Allow me, moreover, to hope that it will 
be a favorite policy with you, not merely to 
secure a payment of the interest of the debt 
funded, but as far and as fast as the grow- 
ing resources of the country will permit, to 
exonerate it of the principal itself. The ap- 
propriations you have made of the western 
lands explain your disposition on this sub- 
ject, and I am persuaded that the sooner 
that valuable fund can be made to contri- 
bute, along with other means, to the actual 
reduction of the public debt, the more salu- 



George Washington. 31 

tary will the measure be to every public 
interest, as well as the most satisfactory to 
our constituents. 

Third Annual Address to Congress. 
October 25, 1791. 
It is sincerely to be desired that all need 
of coercion in future may cease ; and that 
an intimate intercourse may succeed, calcu- 
lated to advance the happiness of the Indians 
and to attach them firmly to the United 
States. ... A system corresponding with 
the mild principles of religion and philan- 
thropy toward an unenlightened race of 
men, whose happiness materially depends on 
the conduct of the United States, would be as 
honorable to the national character as con- 
formable to the dictates of sound policy. 

Fifth Annual Address to Congress. 
December, 1793. 
The United States ought not to indulge a 
persuasion that, contrary to the order of 
human events, they will forever keep at a 
distance those painful appeals to arms, with 



32 Patriotic Nuggets. 

which the history of every other nation 
abounds. There is a rank due to the United 
States among nations which will be withheld, 
if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of 
weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we 
must be able to repel it ; if we desire to secure 
peace, one of the most powerful instruments 
of our rising prosperity, it must be known that 
we are at all times ready for war. 

No pecuniary consideration is more urgent 
than the regular redemption and discharge 
of the public debt. On none can delay be 
more injurious, or an economy of time more 
valuable. 

Sixth Annual Address to Congress. 
Nov. 19, 1794. 
While there is a cause to lament, that 
occurrences of this nature [the Whiskey Re- 
bellion in Pennsylvania] should have dis- 
graced the name, or interrupted the tran- 
quillity of any part of our community, or 
should have diverted to a new application 
any portion of the public resources, there 



George Washington. 33 

are not wanting real and substantial conso- 
lations for the misfortune. It has demon- 
strated that our prosperity rests on solid 
foundations ; by furnishing an additional 
proof that my fellow-citizens understand the 
true principles of government and liberty ; 
that they feel their inseparable union ; that, 
notwithstanding all the devices, which have 
been used to sway them from their interest 
and duty, they are now as ready to maintain 
the authority of the laws against licentious 
invasions as they were to defend their rights 
against usurpation. 

It has been a spectacle displaying to the 
highest advantage the value of republican 
government, to behold the most and the 
least wealthy of our citizens standing in the 
same ranks as private soldiers ; pre-eminently 
distinguished by being the army of the con- 
stitution ; undeterred by a march of three 
hundred miles over rugged mountains, by 
the approach of an unclement season, or by 
any other discouragement. 



34 Patriotic Nitggets. 

Seventh Annual Address to Con- 
gress. December, 1795. 

With burthens so light as scarcely to be 
perceived, with resources fully adequate to 
our present exigencies, with governments 
founded on thegeniune principles of rational 
liberty, and with mild and wholesome laws, 
is it too much to say that our country exhib- 
its a spectacle of national happiness never 
surpassed, if ever before equalled ? 

To inforce upon the Indians the obser- 
vance of justice, it is indispensable that there 
shall be competent means of rendering 
justice to them. 

Farewell Address to the People of 
THE United States. [Withdrawing 
himself as a Candidate for the Presi- 
dency.] 

September 19, 1796. 

Satisfied, that, if any circumstances have 

given peculiar value to my services, they were 

temporary, I have the consolation to believe, 

that, while choice and prudence invite me to 



George Was/n'ngton. 



quit the political scene, patriotism does not 
forbid it. 

It is of infinite moment, that you should 
properly estimate the immense value of 
your national Union to your collective and 
individual happiness ; — that you should cher- 
ish a cordial, habitual, and immovable at- 
tachment to it : accustoming yourselves to 
think and speak of it as of the Palladium of 
your political safety and prosperity ; watch- 
ing for its preservation with jealous anxiety ; 
discountenancing whatever may suggest 
even a suspicion that it can in any event be 
abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon 
the first dawning of every attempt to alienate 
any portion of our Country from the rest, 
or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now 
link together the various parts. 

The name of AMERICAN, which be- 
longs to you, in your national capacity, 
must always exalt just pride of Patriotism, 
more than any appellation derived from local 
discriminations. 



36 Piifriof/r A%-i,'-^As'. 

While, then, every part of our couiury 
thus feels an immediate and peculiar inter- 
est in Union, all the parts combined in the 
united mass of means and efforts cannot 
fail to find greater strength, greater resource, 
proportionably greater security from external 
danger, a less frequent interruption of their 
peace by foreign nations ; . . . Hence, like- 
wise, they will avoid the necessity of those 
overgrown military establishments, which, 
under any form of government, are inaus- 
picious to liberty, and which are to be 
regarded as particularly hostile to republican 
Libert3\ 

Is there a doubt, whether a common 
government can embrace so large a sphere ? 
— Let experience solve it. . . . We are 
authorized to hope, that a proper organiza- 
tion of the whole, with the auxiliary agency 
of governments for the respective subdivi- 
sions, will afford a happy issue to the experi- 
ment. 

This Government, the offspring of our 



Grcvyc^ ]]\is/i/figfon. 37 

own choice uninfluenced and unawed, 
adopted upon full investigation and mature 
deliberation, completely free in its principles, 
in the distribution of its powers, uniting 
security with energy, and containing within 
itself a provision for its own amendment, 
has a just claim to your confidence and 
your support. 

The basis of our political systems is the 
right of the people to make and to alter 
their Constitutions of Government. — But 
the Constitution which at any time exists, 
till changed by an explicit and authentic act 
of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory 
upon all. — The very idea of the power and 
right of the people to establish Government 
presupposes the duty of every individual to 
obey the established Government. 

All obstructions to the execution of the 
Laws, all combinations and associations, 
under whatever plausible character, with the 
real design to direct, control, counteract, 
or awe the regular deliberation and action 
of the constituted authorities, are destructive 



3S Patriotic Nuggets. 

of this fundamental principle, and of fatal 
tendency. 

I have already intimated to you the danger 
of Parties in the State, with particular 
reference to the founding of them on Geo- 
graphical discriminations. — Let me now take 
a more comprehensive view, and warn you 
in the most solemn manner against the 
baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, gener- 
ally. 

This Spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable 
from our nature, having its root in the 
strongest passions of the human mind. — It 
exists under different shapes in all Govern- 
ments, more or less stifled, controlled, or 
repressed : but, in those of the popular form, 
it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is 
truly their worst enemy. ... It ser\'es 
always to distract the Public Councils, and 
enfeeble the Public Admistration. 

There is an opinion, that parties in free 
countries are useful checks upon the Admin- 
istration of the Government, and serve to 
keep alive the spirit of Liberty. —This 



George Washington. 39 

witliin certain limits is probably true ; . . . 
From their natural tendency, it is certain 
there will always be enough of that spirit for 
every salutary purpose. — and there beinj; 
constant danger of excess, the effort ought 
to be. by force of public opinion, to mitigate 
and assuage it. — A fire not to be quenched ; 
it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent 
us bursting into tlamc, lest, instead of warm- 
ing, it should consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits of 
thinking in a free country should inspire 
caution m those intrusted with its adminis- 
tration, to cont'ine themselves within their 
respective constitutional spheres, avoiding 
in the exercise of the powers of one depart- 
ment to encroach upon another. . , . If. in 
the opinion of the People, the distribution of 
the modification of the Constitutional powers 
be in any particular wrong, let it be cor- 
rected by an amendment, in the way which 
the Constitution designates. — But let there 
be no change by usin'pation ; for though 
this, in one instance, mav be the instrument 



40 Patriotic Nuggets. 

of good, it is the customary weapon by wiiicli 
free governments are destroyed. 

Promote, then, as an object of primary im- 
portance, institutions for the general diffusion 
of knowledge. In proportion as the structure 
of a government gives force to public opinion, 
it is essential that public opinion should be 
enlightened. 

Observe good faith and justice towards all 
Nations ; cultivate peace and harmony with 
all. 

Nothing is more essential, than that per- 
manent, inveterate antipathies against par- 
ticular nations, and passionate attachment 
for others, should be excluded ; and that in 
place of them just and amicable feelings 
towards all should be cultivated. The na- 
tion, which indulges towards another habitual 
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some 
degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity 
or its affection, either of which is sufficient 
to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. 



George Washington. 41 

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard 
to foreign nations, is, in extending our com- 
mercial relations, to have with them as little 
I political connection as possible. . 

I Europe has a set of primary interests, 

' which to us have none, or a very remote re- 

I lation. — Hence she must be engaged in fre- 

I quent controversies, the causes of which are 

1 essentially foreign to our concerns. . . . 

I Our detached and distant situation invites and 

I enables us to pursue a different course. . . . 

I Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a 

I situation ? — Why quit our own to stand upon 

, foreign ground ? — Why, by interweaving our 

j destiny with that of any part of Europe, en- 

I tangle our peace and prosperity in the toils 

! of European ambition, rivalship, interest, 

' humor, or caprice } 

j 'Tis our true policy to steer clear of perma- 

I nent alliances, with any portion of the foreign 

world. . . . Taking care always to keep 

ourselves, by suitable establishments on a 

respectably defensive posture, we may safely 



Patriotic Nicggcts. 



trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary 
emergencies. 

Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with 
all nations, are recommended by policy, hu- 
manity, and interest. But even our com- 
mercial policy should hold an equal and 
impartial hand ; neither seeking nor granting 
exclusive favors or preferences ; . . . . con- 
stantly keeping in view, that 'tis folly 
in one nation to look for disinterested favors 
from another,— that it must pay with a por- 
tion of its independence for whatever it may 
accept under that character. 

In offering to you, my Countrymen, these 
counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I 
dare not hope they will make the strong and 
lasting impression I could wish ; .... But, 
if I may even flatter myself, that they may 
be productive of some partial benefit ; some 
occasional good ; that they may now and 
then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, 
to warn against the mischiefs of foreign in- 
trigue, to guard agamst the impostures of 
pretended patriotism, this hope will be a full 



George Washington. 43 

recompense for the solicitude for your wel- 
fare, by which they have been dictated. 

Eighth Annual Address to Congress. 
December 7, 1796. 
To an active external commerce, the pro- 
tection of a naval force is indispensable, 
^'^his is manifest with regard to wars, in 
which a state itself is a party. But besides 
this, it is in our own experience, that the most 
sincere neutrality is not a sufficient guard 
against the depredations of nations at war. 
To secure respect to a neutral flag requires 
a naval force, organized and ready to vin- 
dicate it from insult or aggression. This 
may even prevent the necessity of going to 
war, by discouraging belligerent powers from 
committing such violations of the rights of 
the neutral party, as may, first or last, leave 
no other option. 

It will not be doubted, that, with reference 
either to individual or national welfare, agri- 
culture is of primary importance. In pro- 
portion as nations advance in population and 



44 Patriotic Nuggets. 

other circumstances of maturity, this truth 
becomes more apparent. 

A primary object of such a national insti- 
tution [University] should be the education 
of our youth in the science of government. 
In a republic, what species of knowledge 
can be equally important ? and what duty 
more pressing on its legislature than to pat- 
ronize a plan for communicating it to those 
who are to be the future guardians of the 
liberties of the country ? 

The institution of a military academy is 
also recommended by cogent reasons. How- 
ever pacific the general policy of a nation 
be, it ought never to be without an ade- 
quate stock of military knowledge for emer- 
gencies. The first would impair the energy 
of its character, and both would hazard its 
safety or expose it to greater evils when war 
could not be avoided — besides, that war 
might often not depend upon its own 
choice. 

In proportion as the observance of pacific 



George Was/ii'ngton. 45 

maxims might exempt a nation from the ne- 
cessity of practising the rules of miUtary art, 
ought to be its care in preserving and trans- 
mitting, by proper establishments, the know- 
ledge of that art. Whatever argument may 
be drawn from particular examples, super- 
ficially viewed, a thorough examination of the 
subject will evince that the art of war is at 
once comprehensive and complicated, that it 
demands much previous study ; and that the 
possession of it, in its most improved and 
perfect state, is always of great moment to 
the security of a nation. 

The compensation to the officers of the 
United States, in various instances, and in 
none more than in respect to the most im- 
portant stations, appear to call for legislative 
revision. The consequences of a defective 
provision are of serious import to the govern- 
ment. If private wealth is to supply the 
defect of public retribution, it will greatly 
contract the sphere within which the selec- 
tion of character for office is to be made, and 
will proportionally diminish the probability 



46 Patriotic Nuggets. 

of a choice of men able as well as upright. 
Besides that, it would be repugnant to the 
vital principles of our government, virtually 
to exclude from public trusts talents and 
virtue unless accompanied by wealth. 

It will afford me a heartfelt satisfaction to 
concur in such further measures as will as- 
certain to our country the prospect of a 
speedy extinguishment of the [public] debt. 
Posterity may have cause to regret if from 
any motive intervals of tranquillity arc left 
unimproved for accelerating this valuable 
end. 

The situation in which I now stand, for 
the last time, in the midst of the represent- 
atives of the people of the United States, 
naturally recalls the period when the admin- 
istration of the present form of government 
commenced ; and I cannot omit the occasion 
to congratulate you and my country on the 
success of the experiment, nor to repeat my 
fervent supplications to 'the Supreme Ruler 
of the Universe and Sovereign Arbiter of 
Nations that his providential care may still 



George Washington. 47 

be extended to the United States; that the 
virtue and happiness of the people may be 
preserved ; and that the government, which 
they have instituted for the protection of 
their liberties, may be perpetual. 

Miscellanea. 

Of all dispositions and habits which lead to 
political prosperity, religion and morality are 
indispensable supports. In vain would that 
man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who 
should labor to subvert these great pillars 
of human-happiness, these firmest props of 
the duties of men and citizens. The mere 
politician, equally with the pious man, ought 
to respect and cherish them. 

Every nation has a right to establish that 
form of government under which it con- 
ceives it may live most happy ; provided it 
infracts no right, or is not dangerous to 
others ; and no governments ought to inter- 
fere with the internal concerns of another, 
except for the security of what is due to 
themselves. 



48 Patriotic Nuggets. 

To the efficacy and permanency of the 
Union, a Government for the whole is indis- 
pensable. No alliaftces, however strict, 
between the parts, can be an adequate 
substitute ; they must inevitably experience 
the infractions and interruptions, which all 
alliances in all times have experienced. 

The very idea of the power and the right 
of the people to establish government, pre- 
supposes the duty of every individual to 
obey the established government. 

In every nomination to office, I have 
endeavored, as far as my own knowledge 
extended, or information could be obtained, 
to make fitness of character my primary 
object. 

America may think herself happy in hav- 
ing the Atlantic for a barrier. 

Let us, as a nation, be just ; let us fulfill 
the public contracts, which Congress had 
undoubtedly a right to make, with the same 
good faith we suppose ourselves bound to 
perform our private engagements. 



George Washington. 49 

Commerce and industry are the best mines 
of the nation. 

A difference of opinion on political points 
is not to be imputed to freemen as a fault. 
It is to be presumed, that they are all actu- 
ated by an equally laudable and sacred 
regard for the liberties of their country. 

Arms should be the last resort. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

" All honor to Jefferson ; to the man who, in the con- 
crete pressure of a struggle for national independence 
by a single people, had the coolness, forecast and ca- 
pacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary docu- 
ment an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all 
times, and so to embalm it there that to-day, and in all 
coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block 
to the harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppres- 
sion." — Abraham Lincoln. 

Autobiography. 

In 1769, I became a member of the legis- 
lature [of Virginia] by the choice of the 
county in which I live, and so continued 
until it was closed by the Revolution. I 
made one effort in that body for the permis- 
sion of the emancipation of slaves, which 
was rejected ; and, indeed, during the regal 
government, nothing liberal could expect 
success. Our minds were circumscribed 
within narrow limits, by an habitual belief 
that it was our duty to be subordinate to the 
mother country in all matters of govern- 



52 Patriotic N^uggets. 

ment, to direct all our labors in subservience 
to her interests, and even to observe a 

bigoted intolerance tor all religions but hers. 

The difficulties with our representatives 
were of habit and despair, not of retlection 
and conviction. Experience soon proved 
that they could bring their minds to rights, 
on the tirst summons of their attention. 

Ai'Tor.ioGRAruv. 

Being elected one for my own county 
[to the preliminary Convention, 1774], I pre- 
pared a draught of instructions to be given to 
the delegates whom we should send to the 
[First Continental] Congress, and which I 
meant to propose at our meeting. In this I 
took the ground which, from the beginning 
1 had thought the only one orthodox or ten- 
able, which was that the relation between 
Great Britain and these Colonies was exactly 
the same as that of England and Scotland. 
after the accession of James, and until the 
Union, and the same as her present relations 
with Hanover, having the same Executive 



T/ui?/ias /tJJ\rson. 5 3 

chief but no other necessary poHtical connec- 
tion ; and that our emigration from England 
to this country gave her no more rights 
I over us, than the emigration of the Danes 
and Saxons gave to the present autliorities 
of the mother country, over England. . . .ex- 
' patriation being a natural right, and acted 
' on as such, by all nations, in all ages. 

To John Randolph. 

Monticello, August 25, 1775. 
j I . . . . would rather be in dependence on 
' Great Britain, properly limiicd, than on any 
, other nation on earth, or than on no nation. 
' But I am one of those, too, who, rather than 
' submit to the rights of legislation for us, 
I assumed by the British Parliament, and which 
I late experience has shown they will so cruelly 
> exercise, would lend my hand to sink the 
I whole Island in the ocean. 
I 

I To John Randolph. 

I November, 1775. 

\ Believe me, dear sir, there is not in the 
j British empire a man who more cordially 



-> 



54 Patriotic Xuggets. 

loves a union with Great Britain than I do. 
But by the God that made me, I will cease 
to exist before I yield to a connection on such 
terms as the British Parliament propose ; and 
in this, I think I speak the sentiments of 
America. We want neither inducement nor 
power, to declare and assert a separation. 
It is will, alone, which is wanting, and that 
is growing- apace under the fostering hand 
of our king. 

Declaration of Independence [The 
Slave Trade — One of the Charges 
against the King, Which Was Omitted 
by Congress]. 1776. 
He has waged cruel war against human 
nature itself, violating its most sacred rights 
of life and liberty in the persons of a dis- 
tant people who never offended him, capti- 
vating and carrying them into slavery in 
another hemisphere, or to incur miserable 
death in their transportation thither. This 
piratical welfare, the opprobrium of infidel 
powers, is the warfare of the Christian King 
of Great Britain. Determined to keep open 



Thomas Jefferson. 5 5 

a market where men should be bought and 
sold, he has prostituted his negative for sup- 
: pressing every legislative attempt to pro- 
hibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. 

Declaration of Independence. 
4 July, 1776. 
We hold these truths to be self-evident ; 
, that all men are created equal ; that they are 
I endowed by their creator with certain ina- 
I lienable rights ; that among these are life, 
I liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to 
secure these rights, governments are insti- 
tuted among men. deriving their just powers 
' from the consent of the governed ; that, 
whenever any form of government becomes 
I destructive of these ends, it is the right of 
' the people to alter or abolish it, and to insti- 
' tute a new government, laying its foundations 
I on such principles, and organizing its powers 
' in such form, as to them shall seem most 
I likely to effect their safety and happiness. . . . 

i Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while 
I evils are sufferable, than to right themselves 
' by abolishing the forms to which they are 



56 Patriotic Nuggets. 

accustomed. But when a long train of 
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably 
the same object, evinces a design to reduce 
them under absolute despotism, it is their 
right, it is their duty, to throw off such gov- 
ernment, and to provide new guards for 
their security. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the 
United States of America, in general Con- 
gress assembled, appealing to the supreme 
judge of the world for the rectitude of our 
intentions, do, in the name, and by the 
authority of the good people of these Colo- 
nies, solemnly publish and declare that these 
United Colonies are, and of right ought to be 
free and independent States ; . . . . And for 
the support of this declaration, with a firm 
reliance on the protection of divine provi- 
dence, we mutually pledge to each other our 
lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 

Autobiography. 
If the present Congress [1783] errs in too 
much talking how can it be otherwise, in a 
body to which the people send one hun- 



Thomas Jefferson . 5 7 

dred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to 
question every thing, yield nothing, and 
talk by the hour ? That one hundred and 
I fifty lawyers should do business together, 
ought not to be expected. 

I Ordinance of 1784. For the Government 

of New Territories, 
t Resolved, That the territory ceded by in- 
dividual States to the United States, whenso- 
( ever the same shall have been purchased of 
( the Indian inhabitants and offered for sale 
by the United States, shall be formed into 
I ^additional States. . . . provided, That 
. both the temporary and permanent govern- 
I ments be established on these principles as 
\ their basis : 

' I. That they shall forever remain a part 
of the United States of America. . . . 

5. That after the year 1800 of the Christian 
era there shall be neither slavery nor involun- 
tary servitude in any of the said States, other- 
wise than in punishment of crimes, whereof 
the party shall have been duly convicted to 
have been personally guilty, [This Anti-sla- 



f 



58 Patriotic Nuggets. 

very provision Icilled the bill at that time. 
It was included in the Permanent " Ordi- 
nance of 1787," with the addition, however, 
of a Fugitive Slave provision.] 

To J. Banister. 

Paris, 1785. 
It appears to me, then, that an American, 
coming to Europe for education, loses in 
his knowledge, in his morals, in his health, 
in his habits, and in his happiness. 

To A Friend. 

Paris, January 25, 1786. 
Our present federal limits are not too 
large for good government, nor will the in- 
crease of votes in the Congress produce any 
ill effect. On the contrary, it will drown the 
little divisions at present existing there. 
Our Confederacy must be viewed as the 
nest, from which all America, North and 
South, is to be peopled. 

To James Monroe. 

August II, 1786. 
A naval force can never endanger our 



T/iomas Jefferson. 59 

liberties, nor occasion bloodshed ; a land 
force would do both. 

To Edward Carrington. 

Paris, January i6, 1787. 
The basis of our governments being the 
opinion of the people, the very first object 
should be to keep that right ; and were it 
left to me to decide whether we should have 
a government without newspapers or news- 
papers without a government, 1 should not 
hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But 
I should mean that every man should re- 
' ceive those papers and be capable of read- 
I ing them. 

To George Wythe. 

:. Paris, August 13, 1787. 

i If all the sovereigns of Europe were to set 

themselves to work to emancipate the minds 

of their subjects from their present ignorance 

and prejudices, and that as zealously as 

they now endeavor the contrary, a thousand 

1 years would not place them on that high 

ground, on which our common people are 



6o Patriotic Xuggets. 

now setting out. Ours could not have been 
so fairly put into the hands of their own 
common sense, had they not been separated 
from their parent stock and kept from con- 
tamination, either from them, or the other 
people of the old world, by the intervention 
of so wide an ocean. To know the worth 
of this, one must see the want of it here. /'I 
think by far the most important bill in our 
whole code is that for the diffusion of 
knowledge among the people. No other 
sure foundation can be devised, for the 
preservation of freedom and happiness. 

If anybody thinks that kings, nobles, or 
priests are good conservators of the public 
happiness, send him here. It is the best 
school in the universe to cure him of that 
folly. He will see here with his own eyes, 
that these descriptions of men are an aban- 
doned confederacy against the happiness of 
the mass of the people. Preach, my dear 
sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish and 
improve the law for educating the common 
people. 



Th omas Jefferson . 6 r 

'\:o His Daughter. 

March, 17S7. 
It is part of the American character to 
consider nothing as desperate, to surmount 
every difficulty by resolution and contrivance. 
Remote from all other aid, we are obliged to 
invent and to execute ; to find means within 
ourselves, and not to lean on others, y 

To General Washingion. 

Paris, 1788. 
I was much an enemy to monarchy before 
I came to Europe. 1 am ten thousand times 
more so, since I have seen what they are. 
There is scarcely an evil known in these 
countries, which may not be traced to their 
king as its source, nor a good which is not 
derived from the small fibers of republican- 
ism existing among them. I can further 
say with safety there is not a crowned head 
in Europe, whose talents or merit would 
entitle him to be elected a vestryman by the 
people of any parish in America. 



62 Patriotic Nuggets. 

To David Humphreys. 

March 18, 1789. 
Whenever our affairs go obviously wrong 
the good sense of the people will interpose, 
and set them to rights. The example of 
changing a constitution, by assembling the 
wise men of the State, instead of assembling 
armies, will be worth as much to the world 
as the former examples we had given them. 

To James Madison. 

Paris, August 28, 1789. 
I know of but one code of morality for 
men, whether acting singly or collectively. 
He who says I will be a rogue when I act in 
company with a hundred others but an 
honest man when I act alone, will be be- 
lieved in the former assertion, but not in the 
latter. 

To Mr. Madison. 

Paris, September 6, 1789. 
No society can make a perpetual constitu- 
tion, or even perpetual law. The earth be- 
longs always to the living generation. They 



Thomas Jefferson. 63 

may manage it then, and what proceeds 
from it, as they please, during their usufruct. 

To THE Mayor of Alexandria, Va. 
March 11, 1790. 
It is indeed an animating thought that, 
/ while we are securing the rights of ourselves 
and our posterity, we are pointing out the 
way to struggling nations who wish, like us, 
to emerge from their tyrannies also. 
Heaven help their struggle, and lead them, 
; as it has done us, triumphantly through 
I them. 

I To A Friend. 

December 23, 1791. 
I I would rather be exposed to the inconve- 
I niences attending too much liberty, than 
' those attending too small a degree of it. 

Report on Convention with Spain. 
March 22, 1792. 
Most codes extend their definitions of 
treason to acts not really against one's coun- 
try. They do not distinguish between acts 
against the Government and acts against the 



64 Patriotic Nuggets. 

Oppressio7is of the Government. The latter 
are virtues : yet have furnished more victims 
to the Executioner than the former. Be- 
cause real Treasons are rare ; Oppressions 
frequent. The unsuccessful Struggles against 
Tyranny have been the chief Martyrs of 
Treason laws in all countries. . . . We 
should not v^ish, then, to give up to the 
Executioner, the Patriot who fails and fllees 
to us. Treasons, then, taking the simulated 
with the real, are sufficiently punished by 
Exile. 

To Elbridge Gerry. 

January 26, 1799. 

I am for a government rigorously frugal 
and simple, applying all the possible savings 
of the public revenue to the discharge of the 
national debt ; and not for a multiplication of 
officers and salaries merely to make parti- 
sans, and for increasing, by every device, the 
public debt, on the principle of its being a 
public blessing. 

I am for free commerce with all nations ; 



Thomas Jefferson . 6 5 

political connection with none ; and little or 
no diplomatic establishment. 

I am for freedom of religion, and against 
all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascend- 
ancy of one sect over another ; for freedom 
of the press, and against all violations of the 
Constitution to silence by force and not by 
reason the complaints or criticisms, just or 
unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of 
their agents. 

And I am for encouraging the progress 
of science in all its branches ; and not for 
raising a hue and cry against the sacred name 
of philosophy ; for awing the human mind by 
stories of rawhead and bloody-bones to a 



L 

distrust of its own vision, and to repose im- I 
plicitly on that of others ; to go backwards \ 
■instead of forwards to look for improve- 
ment ; to believe that government, religion, 
morality, and every other science were in the 
highest perfection in ages of the darkest 
ignorance ; and that nothing can ever be 
devised more perfect than what was estab- 
lished by our forefathers. 



C6 Patriotic Nuggets. 

First Inaugural Address. 

March 4, 1801. 
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred 
principle, that though the will of the majority 
is to in all cases to prevail, that will, to be 
rightful, must be reasonable ; that the min- 
ority possess their equal rights, which equal 
laws must protect, and to violate would be 
oppression. 

Every difference of opinion is not a differ- 
ence of principle. We have called, by dif- 
ferent names, brethren of the same principles. 
We are all republicans, we are all federalists. 
If there be any among us who would wish to 
dissolve this Union, or to change its republi- 
can form, let them stand undisturbed, as 
monuments of the safety with which error 
of opinion may be tolerated where reason is 
left free to combat it. < 

I know, indeed, that some honest men 
have feared that a republican government 
cannot be strong ;....! believe this, on 
the contrary the strongest government on 
earth. I believe it is the only one where 



Thomas Jefferson. 67 

every man, at the call of the law, would 
fly to the standard of the law ; would 
meet invasions of public order as his own 
personal concern. 

Sometimes it is said that Man cannot be 
trusted v^ith the government of himself. 
Can he, then, be trusted with the govern- 
ment of others ? Or have we found angels 
in the forms of kings to govern him ? Let 

I History answer this question. 

I 

I A wise and frugal government, which 
shall restrain men from injuring one another, 

i shall leave them otherwise free to regulate 
their own pursuits of industry and improve- 
ment, and shall not take from the mouth of 

I labor the bread it has earned ; this is the 

' sum of good government, and this is neces- 
sary to close the circle of our felicities. 

Equal and exact justice to all men, of 
whatever state and persuasion, religious or 
', political : Peace, commerce, and honest 
] friendship with all nations, entangling alli- 
ances with none : The support of the State 



68 Patriotic Nuggets. 

governments in all their rights, as the most 
competent administration for our domestic 
concerns and the surest bulwarks against 
anti-republican tendencies: The preserva- 
tion o^ the General Government in its v^'hole 
constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of 
our peace at home and safety abroad : A 
jealous care of the right of election by the 
people, a mild and safe corrective of abuses, 
which are lopped by the sword of revolution 
where peaceable remedies are unprovided : 
Absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the 
majority, the vital principle of republics, from 
which there is no appeal but to force, the 
vital principle and immediate parent of des- 
potism : A well-disciplined militia, our best 
reliance in peace and for the first moments 
of war, till regulars may relieve them : The 
supremacy of the civil over the military au- 
thority : ' Economy in public expense, that 
labor may be lightly burthened : i The honest 
payment of our debts and sacred preservation 
of the public faith : Encouragement of 
agriculture, and of commerce as its hand- 
maid : The diffusion of information, and ar- 



Thomas Jefferson. 69 

raignment of all abuses at the bar of the 
public reason : Freedom of religion, freedom 
of the press, and freedom of person under the 
protection of the Habeas Corpus : and Trial 
by juries impartially selected. 

These principles form the bright constella- 
tion which has gone before us, and guided 
our steps, through an age of Revolution and 
Reformation. . . . 

They should be of the creed of our political 

faith, the text of civil instruction, the touch- 

, stone by which to try the services of those 

we trust ; and should we wander from them 

I in moments of error or alarm, let us hasten 

I to retrace our steps and regain the road 

( which alone leads to peace, liberty and 

safety. 

i 

{ To George Jefferson. 

March 27, 1801. 

The public will never be made to believe 

that the appointment of a relative is made 

on the ground of merit alone, uninfluenced 

by family views ; nor can they ever see, with 

approbation, offices, the disposal of which 



70 Patriotic Nuggets. 

they intrusted to their Presidents for public 
purposes, divided out as family property. . . . 
It is true that this places the relations of a 
President in a worse situation than if he were 
a stranger, but the public good, which can 
not be affected if its confidence be lost, re- 
quires this sacrifice. Perhaps, too, it is 
compensated by sharing in the public esteem. 

First Annual Message to Congress. 
December i, 1801. 
One of the Tripolitan cruisers having fallen 
in with, and engaged the small schooner 
Enterprise, commanded by Lieutenant 
Sterret, which had gone as a tender to our 
larger vessels, was captured, after a heavy 
slaughter of her men, without the loss of a 
single one on our part. The bravery ex- 
hibited by our citizens on that element will, 
I trust, be a testimony to the world that it 
is not the want of that virtue which make 
us seek their peace, but a conscientious de- 
sire to direct the energies of our nation to 
the multiplication of the human race, and 
not to its destruction. 



Thomas Jefferso7i. 7 1 

Sound principles will not justify our tax- 
ing the industry of our fellow-citizens to ac- 
cumulate treasure for wars to happen we 
1 know not when, and which might not perhaps 
happen but from the temptations offered by 
that treasure. 

Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, 
\ and navigation, the four pillars of our pros- 
^ perity, are the most thriving when left most 
I free to individual enterprise. 

I Second Message to Congress. 

I December 12, 1802. 

I 

I When effects so salutary result from the 
I plans you have already sanctioned, when 
merely by avoiding false objects of expense 
jwe are able, without a direct tax, without 
; internal taxes, and without borrowing, to 
make large and effectual payments toward 
•e discharge of our public debt and the 
emancipation of our posterity from that moral 
canker, it is an encouragement, fellow-citi- 
zens, of the highest order, to proceed as we 
have begun, in substituting economy for tax- 



72 Patriotic Nuggets. 

ation, and in pursuing what is useful for a 
nation placed as we are, rather than what is 
practised by others under different circum- 
stances. 

Third Message to Congress. 

October 17, 1803. 
We should be most unwise, indeed, were 
we to cast away the singular blessings of 
the position in which nature has placed us, 
the opportunity she has endowed us with of 
pursuing, at a distance from foreign conten- 
tions, the paths of industry, peace, and happi- 
ness ; of cultivating general friendship, and 
of bringing collisions of interest to the um- 
pirage of reason rather than of force. 

Fourth Message to Congress. 
November 8, 1804. 
To those who expect us to calculate 
whether a compliance with unjust demands 
will not cost us less than a war, we must 
leave as a question of calculation for them, 
also, whether to retire from unjust demands 
will not cost them less than a war. We can 



Thomas JeffersoJi . 7 3 

do to each other very sensible injuries by war, 
but the mutual advantages of peace make 
that the best interest of both. 



Second Inaugural Address. 
March 4, 1805. 

With nations, as with individuals, our in- 
terests soundly calculated, will ever be found 
inseparable from our moral duties : and his- 
tory bears witness to the fact, that a just na- 
tion is trusted on its word, when resource is 
had to armaments and wars to bridle others. 

Sixth Annual Message to Congress. 
December i, 1806. 

Were armies to be raised whenever a speck 
of war is visible in our horizon, we never 
should have been without them. Our re- 
sources would have been exhausted on dan- 
gers which have never happened, instead of 
being reserved for what is really to take 
place. 



74 Patriotic Nuggets. 

To Samuel Kerchival. 

July 12, 1816. 

Some men look at constitutions with 
sanctimonious reverence, and deem them 
like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to 
be touched. They ascribe to the men of 
the preceding age a wisdom more than hu- 
man, and suppose what they did to be be- 
yond amendment, I knew that age well ; 
I belonged to it, and labored with it. It de- 
served v^'ell of its country. It was very like 
the present, but without the experience of the 
present ; and forty years of experience in 
government is worth a century of book-read- 
ing ; and this they would say themselves, 
were they to rise from the dead. I am cer- 
tainly not an advocate for frequent and un- 
tried changes in laws and constitutions. I 
think moderate imperfections had better be 
borne with; because, when once known, 'we 
accommodate ourselves to them, and find 
practical means of correcting their ill effects. 
But I know also, that laws and institutions 
must go hand in hand with the progress of 
the human mind. 



Thou I a s Jefferson . 7 5 

To A Friend. 
I am not a Federalist, because I never 
submitted the whole system of my opinions 
to the creed of any party of men whatever, 
in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in 
any thing else where I was capable of think- 
ing for myself. Such an addiction is the last 
degradation of a free and moral agent. If I 
could not go to Heaven but with a party, 
I would not go there at all. 

Autobiography. 

Written in 1821. 

The bill [in the Virginia Assembly 1779] 
on the subject of slavery was a mere digest 
of the existing laws. . . . the principles of 
the Amendment, however, were agreed on, 
that is to say, the freedom of all born after a 
certain day, and deportation after a certain 
age, but it was found that the public mind 
would not yet bear the proposition, nor will 
it bear it even at this day. Yet the day is 
not far distant when it must bear it, or 
worse will follow. Nothing is more cer- 



']() Patriotic Nuggets. 

tainly written in the book of fate than that 
these people are to be free. 

To President Monroe. 

October 24, 1823. 

Our first and fundamental maxim should 
be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils 
of Europe. 

Our second, never to suffer Europe to 
intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs. 

America, North and South, has a set of 
interests distinct from those of Europe, and 
peculiarly her own. She should therefore 
have a system of her own, separate and 
apart from that of Europe. 

To James Heaton. Concerning the Abo- 
lition of Slavery. May 26, 1826. 
The revolution in public opinion which 
this case requires, is not to be expected in a 
day, or perhaps in an age ; but time, which 
outlives all things, will outlive this evil also. 
My sentiments have been forty years before 
the public, and had I repeated them forty 
times, they would only become the more 



Tho7itas Jefferson. JJ 

stale and threadbare. Although I shall not 
live to see them consummated, they will not 
die with me ; but, living- or dying, they will 
ever be in my most fervent prayers. 

To Mr, Weightman. 

Monticello, June 24, 1826. 
I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, 
have met and exchanged there congratula- 
tions personally with the small band, the 
remnant of that host of worthies, who joined 
with us on that day [July 4, 1776], in the 
bold and doubtful election we were to make 
for our country, between submission or the 
sword ; and to have enjoyed with them the 
consolatory fact that our fellow citizens, 
after half a century of experience and pros- 
perity, continue to approve the choice we 
made. 

All eyes are opened or opening, to the 
rights of man. The general spread of the 
light of- science has already laid open to 
every view the palpable truth, that the mass 
of mankind has not been born with saddles 



78 Patriotic Nuggets. 

on their backs, nor a favored few booted and 
spurred, ready to ride tiiem legitimately, by 
the grace of God. These are grounds of 
hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual 
return of this day forever refresh our recol- 
lections of these rights, and our undimin- 
ished devotion to them. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 

" He taught the principles of political Union to his 
generation. He produced those convictions which 
sustained the North in its subsequent contest to pre- 
serve the integrity of the Nation. There can be no 
estimate of the services he rendered to the country by 
his grand and patriotic efforts." — Dr. John Lord. 

It is certain, that, although many of them 
were republicans in principle, we have no 
evidence that our New England ancestors 
would have emigrated, as they did, from 
their own native country, would have become 
wanderers in Europe, and finally would have 
undertaken the establishment of a colony 
here, merely from their dislike of the politi- 
cal systems of Europe. They fled not so 
much from the civil government, as from 
the hierarchy, and the laws w^hich enforced 
conformity to the church establishment. . . . 
Thanks be to God, that this spot was honored 
as the asylum of religious liberty ! May its 
standard, reared here, remain forever ! May 
it rise up as high as heaven, till its banner 



8o Patriotic Nuggets. 

shall fan the air of both continents, and 
wave as a glorious ensign of peace and se- 
curity to the nations ! 

Whatever constitutes country, except the 
earth and the sun, all the moral causes of 
affection and attachment which operate upon 
the heart, they had brought with them to 
their new abode. Here were now their 
families and friends, their homes, and their 
property. Before they reached the shore, 
they had established the elements for a social 
system, and at a much earlier period had 
settled their forms of religious worship. . . . 
The morning that beamed on the first night 
of their repose saw the Pilgrims already at 
home in their country. There were political 
institutions, and civil liberty, and religious 
worship. Poetry has fancied nothing, in the 
wanderings of heroes, so distinct and char- 
acteristic. 

Happy auspices of a happy futurity ! Who 
would wish that his country's existence had 
otherwise begun ? Who would desire the 
power of going back to the ages of fable ? 



Daniel Webster. 



Who would wish for an origin obscured in 
the darkness of antiquity? Who would wish 
for other emblazoning of his country's her- 
aldry, or other ornaments of her genealogy, 
than to be able to say, that her first existence 
was with intelligence, her first breath the 
inspiration of liberty, her first principle, the 
truth of divine religion ? 

Of our system of government the first 
thing to be said is, that it is really and prac- 
tically a free system. It originates entirely 
with the people, and rests on no other foun- 
dation than their assent. 

For the purpose of public instruction, we 
hold every man subject to taxation in pro- 
portion to his property, and we look not to 
the question, whether he himself have, or 
have not, children to be benefited by the 
education for which he pays. . . . We hope 
for a security beyond the law, and above the 
law, in the prevalence of an enlightened and 
well-principled and moral sentiment. 

We are bound to maintain public liberty, 
and, by the example of our own systems, to 



82 Patriotic Nuggets. 

convince the world that order and law, reli- 
oion and morality, the rights of conscience, 
the rights of persons, and the rights of prop- 
erty, may all be preserved and secured, in 
the most perfect manner, by a government 
entirely and purely elective. If we fail in 
this, our disaster will be signal. 

The Revolution in Greece. 

January 19, 1824. 
It is certainly true that the just policy of 
this country is, in the first place, a peaceful 
policy. No nation ever had less to expect 
from forcible aggrandizement. The mighty 
agents which are working out our greatness 
are time, industry, and the arts. Our aug- 
mentation is by growth, not by acquisition ; 
by internal development, not by external 
accession. No schemes can be suggested 
to us so magnificent as the prospects which 
a sober contemplation of our own condition, 
unaided by projects, uninfluenced by ambi- 
tion, fairly spreads before us. 

From the earliest settlement of these 



Daniel Webster. 83 

states, their inhabitants were accustomed, in 
a greater or less degree, to the enjoyment of 
the powers of self-government : and for the 
last half-century they have sustained systems 
of government entirely representative, yield- 
ing to themselves the greatest possible 
prosperity, and not leaving them without 
distinction and respect among the nations of 
the earth. This system we are not likely to 
abandon ; and while we shall no farther re- 
commiend its adoption to other nations, in 
whole or in part, than it may recommend 
itself by its visible infiuence on our own 
growth and prosperity, we are, nevertheless, 
interested to resist the establishment of 
doctrines Vv^hich deny the legality of its foun- 
dations. 

The Bunker Hill Monument ; Laying 
THE Corner Stone. June 17, 1825. 

Venerable men ! 1 You have come down 
to us from a former generation. Heaven has 
bounteously lengthened out your lives, that 
you might behold this joyous day. You are 

» The veterans of 1775. 



84 Patriotic Nuggets. 

now where you stood fifty years ago, this very 
hour, with your brothers and with your neigh- 
bors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife for 
your country. Behold, how altered ! The 
same heavens are indeed over your heads : the 
same ocean roils at your feet ; but all else 
how changed ! You hear now no roar of 
hostile cannon, you see no mixed volumes of 
smoke and flame rising from burning 
Charlestown. The ground strewed with the 
dead and dying ; the impetuous charge ; 
the steady and successful repulse ; the loud 
call to repeated assault ; the summoning of all 
that is manly to repeated resistance ; a thou- 
sand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in 
an instant to whatever of terror there may 
be in war and death ; — all these you have 
witnessed, but you witness them no more. 
All is peace. The heights of yonder metrop- 
olis, its towers and roofs, which you then 
saw filled with wives and children and 
countrymen in distress and terror, and look- 
ing with unutterable emotions for the issue 
of the combat, have presented you to-day 
with the sight of its whole happy population. 



Daniel Webster. 85 

come out to welcome and greet you with a 
universal jubilee. Yonder proud ships, by 
a felicity of position appropriately lying at the 
foot of this mount, and seeming fondly to 
cling around it, are not means of annoyance 
to you, but your country's own means of 
distinction and defence. All is peace ; and 
God has granted you this sight of your 
country's happiness, ere you slumber in the 
grave. He has allowed you to behold and 
to partake the reward of your patriotic toils, 
and he has allowed us, your sons and 
countrymen, to meet you here, and in the 
name of the present generation, in the name 
of your country, in the name of liberty, to 
thank you ! 

The great wheel of political revolution 
began to move in America. Here its rota- 
tion was guarded, regular and safe. 
Transferred to the other continent, from 
unfortunate but natural causes, it received 
an irregular and violent impulse ; it whirled 
along with a fearful celerity ; till at length, 
like the chariot-wheels in the races of an- 



86 Patriotic Ntiggets. 

tiquity, it took fire from the rapidity of its 
own motion, and blazed onward, spreading 
conflagration and terror around. 

We learn from the result of this experi- 
ment, how fortunate was our own condition, 
and how admirably the character of our 
people was calculated for setting the great 
example of popular governments. 

If, in our case, the representative system 
ultimately fail, popular governments must be 
pronounced impossible. No combination of 
circumstances more favorable to the experi- 
ment can ever be expected to occur. The 
last hopes of mankind therefore, rest with us ; 
and if it should be proclaimed, that our ex- 
ample had become an argument against the 
experiment, the knell of popular liberty would 
be sounded throughout the earth. 

There remains to us a great duty of de- 
fence and preservation ; and there is opened 
to us, also, a noble pursuit, to which the spirit 
of the times strongly invites us. Our proper 
business is improvement. . . . Let our con- 
ceptions be enlarged to the circle of our 



Da7iiel Webster. 87 

duties. Let us extend our ideas over the 
wiiole of the vast field in which we are called 
to act. Let our object be, OUR country, 

OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT 

OUR COUNTRY. And, by the blessings of 
God, may that country itself become a vast, 
splendid monument, not of oppression and 
terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Lib- 
erty, upon which the world may gaze with 
admiration forever ! 

Completion of the Bunker Hill 
Monument. June 7, 1843. 
Heaven has not alloted to this generation 
an opportunity of rendering high services, 
and manifesting strong personal devotion, 
such as they rendered and manifested, 
and in such a cause as that which roused the 
patriotic fires of their youthful breasts, and 
nerved the strength of their arms. But we 
may praise what we cannot equal, and cele- 
brate actions which we were not born to per- 
form. 

Some differences may, doubtless, be 
traced at this day between the descendants 



Patriotic Nuggets, 



of the early colonists of Virginia and those of 
New England, owing to the different influ- 
ences and different circumstances under 
which the respective settlements were made ; 
but only enough to create a pleasing variety 
in the' midst of a general family resem- 
blance. . . . The great and common cause 
of the Revolution bound them to one 
another by new links of brotherhood ; and at 
length the present constitution of govern- 
ment united them happily and gloriously, to 
form the great republic of the world, and 
bound up their interests and fortunes, till the 
whole earth sees that there is now for them, 
in present possession as well as in future 
hope, but " One Country, One Consti- 
tution, AND One Destiny." 

Spain descended on the New World in 
the armed and terrible image of her mon- 
archy and her soldiery ; England approached 
it in the winning and popular garb of per- 
sonal rights, public protection and civil 
freedom. England transplanted liberty to 
America; Spain transplanted power. Eng- 
land, through the agency of private compan- 



Daniel Webster. 



ies and the efforts of individuals, colonized 
this part of North America by industrious 
individuals, making their own v^'ay in the 
v^'ilderness, defending themselves against 
the savages, recognizing their right to the 
soil, and with a general honest purpose of 
introducing knowledge as well as Christian- 
ity among them, Spain stooped on South 
America, like a vulture on its prey. Every- 
thing was force. Territories were acquired 
by fire and sword. Cities were destroyed 
by fire and sword. Hundreds of thousands 
of human beings fell by fire and sword. 
Even conversion to Christianity was at- 
tempted by fire and sword. 

The great elements, then, of the American 
system of government, originally introduced 
by the colonists, and which were early in 
operation, and ready to be developed, more 
and more, as the progress of events should 
justify or demand, were, — 

Escape from the existing political systems 
of Europe, including its religious hierarchies, 
but the continued possession and enjoyment 



90 Patriotic Nuggets. 

of its science and arts, its literature, and its 
manners ; 

Home government, or the power of mak- 
ing in the colony the municipal laws which 
were to govern it ; 

Equality of rights ; 

Representative assemblies, or forms of 
government founded on popular elections. 

Let us hold fast the great truth, that com- 
munities are responsible as well as individ- 
uals ; that no government is respectable, 
which is not just ; that without unspotted 
purity of public faith, without sacred public 
principle, fidelity, and honor, no mere forms 
of government, no machinery of laws, can 
give dignity to political society. 

The Monroe Doctrine. 

April 14, 1826. 
We mean by our policy of neutrality, that 
the great objects of national pursuit with us 
are connected with peace. We covet no 
provinces ; we desire no conquests ; we 
entertain no ambitious projects of aggran- 
dizement by war. This is our policy. But 



Daniel Webster, 91 

it does not follow from this, that we rely less 
than other nations on our own power to vin- 
dicate our own rights. We know that the 
last logic of kings is also our last logic ; that 
our own interests must be defended and 
maintained by our own arm ; and that peace 
or war may not always be of our own 
choosing. 

I must now ask the indulgence of the com- 
mittee to an important point in the discussion, 
I mean the declaration of the President in 
1823.1 

Sir, I look on the message of December, 
1823, as forming a bright page in our his- 
tory. I will help neither to erase it or tear 
it out ; nor shall it be, by any act of mine, 

»In the message of President Monroe to Congress at 
the commencement of the session of 1823-24, the follow- 
ing passage occurs :— " In the wars of the European 
powers, in matters relating to themselves, we have 
never taken any part, nor does it comport with our 
policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded 
or seriously menaced, that we resent injuries or make 
preparations for defence. With the movements in this 
hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately con- 
nected, and by causes which must be obvious to all en- 
( lightened and impartial observers. . . . With thQ 



92 Patriotic Nuggets. 

blurred or blotted. It did honor to the sa- 
gacity of the government, and I will not di- 
minish that honor. It elevated the hopes, 
and gratified the patriotism, of the people. 
Over those hopes I will not bring a mildew ; 
nor will I put that gratified patriotism to 
shame. 

Adams and Jefferson. 

Aug. 2, 1826. 
Adams and Jefferson are no more. On 
our fiftieth anniversary, the great day of 
national jubilee, in the very hour of public 
rejoicing, in the midst of echoing and re-echo- 
ing voices of thanksgiving, while their own 
names were on all tongues, they took their 
flight together to the world of spirits, 1 

existing colonies or dependencies of any European 
power, we have not interfered and shall not interfere. 
Rut with the governments who have declared their 
independence and maintained it, and whose indepen- 
dence we have on great consideration and on just 
principles acknowledged, we could not view any inter- 
position for the purpose of oppressing, or control- 
ling in any other manner their destiny, in any other 
light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly dis- 
position toward the United Stales. 
» Both died July 4th, 1826. 



Daniel Webster. 93 

Adams and Jefferson are no more. As 
human beings, indeed, they are no more. 
. . . . But how httle is there of the great 
and good which can die ! To their country 
they yet live, and live forever. They live in 
all that perpetuates the remembrance of 
men on earth ; in the reproofs of their own 
great actions, in the offspring of their in- 
tellect, in the deep-engraved lines of public 
gratitude, and in the respect and homage of 
mankind. 



No two men now live, fellow-citizens, 
perhaps it may be doubted whether any two 
men have ever lived in one age, who, more 
than those we now commemorate, have im- 
pressed on mankind their own sentiments in 
regard to politics and government, infused 
their own opinions more deeply into the 
opinions of others, or given a more lasting 
direction to the current of human thought. 
Their work doth not perish with them. . . . 
No age will come in which the American 
Revolution will appear less than it is, one of 
the greatest events in human history. No 



94 Patriotic Nuggets. 

age will come in which it shall cease to be 
seen and felt, on either continent, that a 
great advance, not only in American affairs, 
but in human affairs, was made on the 4th 
of July, 1776. 

As a composition, the Declaration [of Inde- 
pendence] is Mr. Jefferson's. It is the pro- 
duction of his mind, and the high honor of 
it belongs to him, clearly and absolutely. 

The Congress of the Revolution, fellow- 
citizens, sat with closed doors, and no report 
of its debates was ever made. The discus- 
sion, therefore, which accompanied this great 
measure, has never been preserved, except 
in memory and by tradition. But it is, I be- 
lieve, doing no injustice to others to say, 
that the general opinion was, and uniformly 
has been, that in debate, on the side of inde- 
pendence, John Adams had no equal. The 
great author of the Declaration himself had 
expressed that opinion uniformly and 
strongly. 

Let us, then, bring before us the assembly, 



Daniel Webster. 95 

which was about to decide a question thus 
big with the fate of empire. Let us open 
their doors and look in upon their dehbera- 
tions. Let us survey the anxious and care- 
worn countenances, let us hear the firm-toned 
voices, of this band of patriots. 

Hancock presides over the solemn sitting ; 
and one of those not yet prepared to pro- 
nounce for absolute independence is on the 
floor, and is urging his reasons for dissenting 
from the Declaration. . . . 

It was for Mr. Adams to reply to argu- 
ments like these. We know his opinions, 
and we know his character. He would 
commence with his accustomed directness 
and earnestness. 

" Sink or swim, live or die, survive or per- 
ish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. 
It is true, indeed, that in the beginning we 
aimed not at independence. But there's a 
Divinity which shapes our ends. The in- 
justice of England has driven us to arms ; 
and, blinded to her own interest for our good, 
she has obstinately persisted, till independ- 
ence is now within our grasp. . . . Read 



96 Patriotic Nuggets. 

this Declaration at the head of the army , 
every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, 
and the solemn vow uttered, to maintain it, 
or to perish on the bed of honor. Publish 
it from the pulpit ; religion will approve it, 
and the love of religious liberty will cling 
round it, resolved to stand with it, or fall 
with it. Send it to the public halls ; proclaim 
it there ; let them hear it who heard the first 
roar of the enemy's cannon ; let them see it 
who saw their brothers and their sons fall 
on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets 
of Lexington and Concord, and the very 
walls will cry out in its support. " 

" Sir, I know the uncertainty of human 
affairs, but I see, I see clearly, through this 
day's business. You and I, indeed, may 
rue it. We may not live to the time when 
this Declaration shall be made good. We 
may die ; die colonists ; die slaves ; die, it 
may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold. 
Be it so ! Be it so ! If it be the pleasure 
of Heaven that my country shall require the 
poor offering of my life, the victim shall be 



Daniel Webster. 97 

ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, 
come when that hour may. But while I do 
live, let me have a country, or at least the 
hope of a country, and that a free coun- 
try. . . . We shall make this a glorious, 
an immortal day. When we are in our 
graves, our children will honor it. They will 
celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, 
with bonfires, and illuminations. . . . Sir, 
before God, I believe the hour is come. My 
judgment approves this measure, and my 
whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all 
that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am 
now ready here to stake upon it ; and I leave 
off as I begun, that live or die, survive or per- 
ish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living 
sentiment, and by the blessing of God it 
shall be my dying sentiment, — Independence 
now, and Independence for ever ! " 

And so that day shall be honored, illustri- 
ous prophet and patriot ! so that day shall be 
honored, and as often as it returns, thy re- 
nown shall come along with it, and the glory 
of thy life, like the day of thy death, shall 
not fail from the remembrance of men. 



Patriotic Nuggets. 



The Reply to Hayne, of South Caro- 
lina. Jan. 26 and 27, 1830. 
I shall not acknowledge that the honor- 
able member goes before me in regard for 
whatever of distinguished talent or dis- 
tinguished character South Carolina has 
produced. 1 claim part of the honor, I 
partake in the pride, of her great names. 
I claim them for countrymen, one and all, 
the Laurenses, the Rutledges, the Pinckneys, 
the Sumpters, the Marions, Americans all, 
whose fame is no more to be hemmed in by 
State lines, than their talents and patriotism 
were capable of being circumscribed within 
the same narrow limits. In their day and 
generation, they served and honored the 
country, and the whole country ; and their 
renown is of the treasures of the whole 
country. 

Mr. President, I shall enter on no en- 
comium upon Massachusetts ; she needs 
none. There she is. Behold her, and 
judge for yourselves. There is her history ; 
the world knows it by heart. The past, at 



Daniel Webster, 99 

least, is secure. There is Boston, and Con- 
cord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill ; and 
there they will remain forever. The bones 
of her sons, falling in the great struggle for 
Independence, now lie mingled with the soil 
of every State from New England to 
Georgia ; and there they will lie forever. 
And, Sir, where American liberty raised its 
first voice, and where its youth was nurtured 
and sustained, there it still lives, in the 
strength of its manhood and full of its orig- 
inal spirit. If discord and disunion shall 
wound it, if party strife and blind ambition 
shall hawk at and tear it, if folly and mad- 
ness, if uneasiness under salutary and neces- 
sary restraint, shall succeed in separating it 
from the Union, by which alone its existence 
is made sure, it will stand, in the end, by the 
side of that cradle in which its infancy was 
rocked ; it will stretch forth its arm with 
whatever of vigor it may still retain over the 
friends who gather around it ; and it will 
fall at last, if fall it must, amidst the proud- 
est monuments of its own glory, and on the 
very spot of its origin. 



I oo Patriotic Nuggets. 

The inherent right in the people to reform 
their government I do not deny : and they 
have another right, and that is, to resist un- 
constitutional laws, without overturning the 
government. It is no doctrine of mine that 
unconstitutional laws bind the people. 

The right of a State to annul a law of 
Congress cannot be maintained, but on the 
ground of the inalienable right of man to re- 
sist oppression ; that is to say, upon the 
ground of revolution. I admit that there is 
an ultimate violent remedy, above the Consti- 
tution and in defiance of the Constitution, 
which may be resorted to when a revolution 
is to be justified. But I do not admit, that, 
under the Constitution and in conformity 
with it, there is any mode in which a State 
government, as a member of the Union, can 
interfere and stop the progress of the 
general government, by force of her own 
laws, under any circumstances whatever. 

The people have wisely provided, in the 
Constitution itself, a proper, suitable mode 
and tribunal for settling questions of Con- 



Daniel Webster. 



stitutional law. . . . The Constitution itself 
has pointed out, ordained, and established 
that authority. How has it accomplished this 
great and essential end } By declaring, Sir, 
that " the Constitution, a?id the laws of the 
United States made in pursuance thereof, 
shall be the supreme law of the land, any- 
thing in the Co7istitution or laws of any 
State to the contrary Jiotivithstandingy .... 
But who shall decide this question of inter- 
ference } To whom lies the last appeal ? 
This, Sir, the Constitution itself decides also, 
by declaring, that " the judicial power 
shall extefid to all cases arising under the 
Constitution and laws of the United States." 
These two provisions cover the whole 
ground. They are, in truth, the keystone 
of the arch ! With these it is a govern- 
ment ; without them it is a confederation. 

When my eyes shall be turned to behold 
for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not 
see him shining on the broken and dishonored 
fragments of a once glorious Union ; on 
States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on 
a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it 



I02 ratriotic Nuggets. 

may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their last 
feeble and lingering glance rather behold 
the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now 
known and honored throughout the earth, 
still full high advanced, its arms and 
trophies streaming in their original luster, 
not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single 
star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such 
miserable interrogatory as " What is all this 
worth? " nor those other words of delusion 
and folly, " Liberty first and Union after- 
wards ; " but everywhere, spread all over in 
characters of living light, blazing on all its 
ample folds, as they float over the sea and 
over the land, and in every wind under the 
whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to 
every true American heart, — Liberty and 
Union, now and for ever, one and insepa- 
rable ! 

The Constitution not a Compact. 
February i6, 1833. 

Sir, I love Liberty no less ardently than 
the gentleman himself, in whatever form 
she may have appeared in the progress of 



Daniel Webster. 103 

human history. As exhibited in the master 
states of antiquity, as breaking out again 
from amidst the darkness of the Middle 
Ages, and beaming on the formation of new 
communities in modern Europe, she has, 
always and everywhere, charms for me. 
Yet, Sir, it is our own liberty, guarded by 
constitutions and secured by Union, it is 
that liberty which is our paternal inheritance, 
it is our established, dear-sought, peculiar 
American liberty, to which I am chiefly 
devoted, and the cause of which I now 
mean, to the utmost of my power, to main- 
tain and defend. 

The first resolution declares that the 
people of the United States ''acceded'' to 
the Constitution, or to the constitutional 
compact, as it is called. This word " ac- 
cede," not found either in the Constitution 
itself, or in the ratification of it by any one of 
the States, has been chosen for use here, 
doubtless, not without a well-considered 
purpose. 

The natural converse of accession is seces- 



104 Patriotic Nuggets. 

sion ; and, therefore when it is stated that 
the people of the States acceded to the 
Union, it may be more plausibly argued, 
that they may secede from it. . . . The 
people of the United States have used no 
such form of expression in establishing the 
present government. They do not say that 
they accede to a league, but they declare 
that they ordain and establish a Consti- 
tion. . . , Inasmuch as they were already 
m union, they did not speak of acceditig to 
the new Articles of Confederation, but of 
ratifyijig and confirjnitig them ; . . . . 
No State is at liberty to secede, on the 
ground that she and other States have done 
nothing but accede. She must show that she 
has a right to reverse what has been 
ordained, to unsettle and overthrow what 
has been established, to reject what the 
people have adopted, and to break up what 
they have ratified; because these are the 
terms which express the transactions which 
have actually taken place. In other words, 
she must show her right to make a revolu- 
tion. 



Daniel Webster. 105 

To begin with nullification, with the 
avowed intent, nevertheless, not to proceed 
to secession, dismemberment, and general 
revolution, is as if one were to take the 
plunge of Niagara, and cry out that he 
would stop half-way down. In the one 
case, as in the other, the rash adventurer 
must go to the bottom of the dark abyss 
below, were it not that that abyss has no 
discovered bottom. 

Public Dinner in New York. 

March 10, 1831. 
Who is there among us, that, should he 
find himself on any spot of the earth where 
human beings exist, and where the exist- 
ence of other nations is known, would not 
be proud to say, I am an American } I am 
a countryman of Washington } I am a citi- 
zen of that republic, which, although it has 
suddenly sprung up, yet there are none on 
the globe who have ears to hear, and have 
not heard of it ; who have eyes to see, and 
have not read of it ; who know anything, and 
yet do not know of its existence and its 
glory } 



]o6 Patriotic Nuggets. 

There are two principles, Gentlemen, 
strictly and purely American, which are now 
likely to prevail throughout the civilized 
world. Indeed, they seem the necessary 
result of the progress of civilization and 
knowledge. These are, first, popular gov- 
ernments, restrained by written constitu- 
tions ; and secondly, universal education. 
Popular governments and general education, 
acting and reacting, mutually producing and 
reproducing each other, are the mighty agen- 
cies which in our days appear to be exciting, 
stimulating, and changing civilized societies. 
Man, everywhere, is now found demanding 
a participation in government, — and he will 
not be refused : and demands knowledge as 
necessary to self-government. 

The Character of Washington (Cen- 
tennial Anniversary). Feb, 22, 1832. 
One of the most striking things ever said 
of him is, that ^' he changed mankind' s ideas 
of political greatness."'^ To command- 
ing talents, and to success, the common 

' Fisher Ames. 



Daniel Webster. 107 

elements of such greatness, he added a 
disregard of self, a spotlessness of motive, a 
ready submission to every public and pri- 
vate duty, which threw far into the shade 
the whole crowd of vulgar great, .... 
His love of glory, so far as that may be sup- 
posed to have influenced him at all, spurned 
everything short of general approbation. It 
would have been nothing to him, that his 
partisans or his favorites outnumbered, or 
outvoted, or outmanaged, or outclamored, 
those of other leaders. He had no favorites ; 
he rejected all partisanship : and, acting hon- 
estly for the universal good, he deserved, 
what he has so richly enjoyed, the universal 
love. 

His fame is as durable as his principles, as 
lasting as truth and virtue themselves. 
While the hundreds whom party excitement, 
and temporary circumstances, and casual 
combinations, have raised into transient 
notoriety, sink again, like thin bubbles, 
bursting and dissolving into the great ocean, 
Washington's fame is like the rock which 



ro8 Patriotic Nuggets. 

bounds that ocean, and at whose feet its 
billows are destined to break harmlessly for 
ever. 

Washington, therefore, could regard, and 
did regard, nothing as of paramount politi- 
cal interest, but the integrity of the Union 
itself. With a united government, well 
administered, he saw that we had nothing 
to fear ; and without it, nothing to hope. 
The sentiment is just, and its momentous (! 
truth should solemnly impress the whole 1 
country. } 

Executive Patronage and Removals \ 

FROM Office. October 12, 1836. \ 

Mr. President, as far as I know, there is j 

no civilized country on earth, in which, on a ' 
change of rulers, there is such an itiqiiisi- 
t ion for spoil as we have witnessed in this 

free republic. I 

This principle of claiming a monopoly of j 

office by the right of conquest, unless the ' 
public shall effectually rebuke and restrain it, 

will entirely change the character of our \ 



Datiiel Webster. 109 

government. It elevates party above coun- 
try ; it forgets the common weal in the pur- 
suit of personal emolument ; it tends to 
form, it does form, we see that it has 
formed, a political combination, united by 
no common principles or opinions among 
its members, either upon the powers of the 
government, or the true policy of the coun- 
try ; but held together simply as an associa- 
tion, under the charm of a popular head, 
seeking to maintain possession of the gov- 
ernment by a vigorous exercise of its 
patronage; .... Sir, if this course of 
things cannot be checked, good men will 
grow tired of the exercise of political privi- 
leges. They will have nothing to do with 
popular elections. They will see that such 
elections are but a mere selfish contest for 
office ; and they will abandon the govern- 
ment to the scramble of the bold, the daring, 
and the desperate. 

In all popular governments, a FREE press 
is the most important of all agents and 
instruments. . . . While it acts in a man- 



1 lo Patriotic Nuggets. 

ner worthy of this distinction, the press is a 
fountain of light, and a source of gladdening 
warmth. It instructs the public mind, and 
animates the spirit of patriotism. . . . 
But remember, Sir, that these are the 
attributes of a free press only. And is a 
press that is purchased or pensioned more 
free than a press that is fettered ? Can the 
people look for truths to partial sources, 
whether rendered partial through fear or 
through favor? 

An open attempt to secure the aid and 
friendship of the public press, by bestowing 
the emoluments of office on its active con- 
ductors, seems to me, of everything we have 
witnessed, to be the most reprehensible. It 
degrades both the government and the press. 

Speech On Banking. 

January 31, 1834. 

The very man, of all others, who has the 

deepest interest in a sound currency, and 

who suffers most by mischievous legislation 

in money matters, is the man who earns his 



Dattiel Webster. 1 1 1 

daily bread by his daily toil. A depreciated 
currency, sudden changes of prices, paper 
money, falling between morning and noon, 
and falling still lower between noon and 
night, — these things constitute the very 
harvest-time of speculators, and of the whole 
race of those who are at once idle and crafty ; 
and of that other race, too, the Catilines of 
all times, marked, so as to be known for 
ever, by one stroke of the historian's pen, 
those greedy of other meat's property and 
prodigal of their own. 

Whoever attempts, under whatever popu- 
lar cry, to shake the stability of the public 
currency, bring on distress in money matters, 
and drive the country into the use of paper 
money, stabs your interest and your happi- 
ness to the heart. 

Reception at New York. 

March 15, 1837. 

He who tampers with the currency robs 

labor of its bread. He panders, indeed, to 

greedy capital, which is keen-sighted, and 

may shift for itself ; but he beggars labor. 



1 1 2 Pat7-iotic Nuggets. 

which is honest, unsuspecting, and too busy 
for the present to calculate for the future. 

Did wild schemes and projects ever benefit 
the industrious ? Did irredeemable bank 
paper ever enrich the laborious ? Did vio- 
lent fluctuations ever do good to him who 
depends on his daily labor for his daily 
bread? Certainly never. All these things 
may gratify greediness for sudden gain, or 
the rashness of daring speculation ; but they 
can bring nothing but injury and distress to 
the homes of patient industry and honest 
labor. 

Reply to Mr. Calhoun. 

March 22, 1838. 
The Secretary of the Treasury .... as- 
sures us, that, bad as the times were, and 
notwithstanding the floods of bad paper 
which deluged the country, members of 
Congress should get gold and silver. . . . 
If there be bad money in the country, I 
think that Secretaries and other executive 
officers, and especially the members of Con- 



Daniel Webste}'. 



g^ress, should be the last to receive any good 
money ; because they have the power, if 
they will do their duty, and exercise it, of 
making the money of the country good for 
all. 

"The Log Cabin Candidate." [Wm. 
Henry Harrison.] August 12, 1840. 
It touched a tender point in the public 
feeling. It naturally roused indignation. 
What was intended as reproach was imme- 
diately seized on as merit. " Be it so ! Be 
it so ! " was the instant burst of the public 
voice. " Let him be the log-cabin candi- 
date." . . . . It is only shallow-minded pre- 
tenders who either make distinguished ori- 
gin matter of personal merit, or obscure origin 
matter of personal reproach. ... A man 
who is not ashamed of himself need not be 
ashamed of his early condition. 

Address to the Ladies of Richmond. 
October 5, 1840. 
We applaud the artist whose skill and 
genius present the mimic man upon the can- 



1 1 4 Patriotic Nuggets. 

vas ; we admire and celebrate the sculptor 
who works out that same image in enduring 
marble ; but how insignificant are these 
achievements, though the highest and the 
fairest in all the departments of art, in com- 
parison with the great vocation of human 
mothers ! They work not upon the canvas 
that shall perish, or the marble that crum- 
bles into dust, but upon mind, upon spirit, 
which is to last for ever, and which is to 
bear, for good or evil, throughout its dura- 
tion, the impress of a mother's plastic hand. 

Reception at Boston. 

September 30, 1842. 
Every settlement of national differences 
between Christian states by fair negotiation, 
without resort to arms, is a new illustration 
and a new proof of the benign influence of 
the Christian faith. 

Repudiation does nothing but add a sort 
of disrepute to acknowledged inability. 

The Landing at Plymouth. 

December 22, iS_i3. 
Circumstances have wrought out for us a 



Daniel Webster. 115 

state of things which, in other times and 
other regions, philosophy has dreamed of, 
and theory has proposed, and speculation 
has suggested, but which man has never 
been able to accomplish. I mean the govern- 
ment of a great nation over a vastly extended 
portion of the surface of the earth, by means 
of local institutions for local purposes, and 
general institutio7is for general purposes. 

I care not beneath what zone, frozen, 
temperate, or torrid ; I care not of what 
complexion, white or brown ; I care not 
under what circumstances of climate or cul- 
tivation, — if I can find a race of men on an 
inhabitable spot of earth whose general 
sentiment it is, and whose general feeling it 
is, that government is made for man, — man, 
as a religious, moral, and social being, — and 
not man for government, there I know that 
I shall find prosperity and happiness. 

The Girard Will Case. 
Philadelphia, February 20, 1844. 
No literary efforts, no adjudications, no 



1 1 6 Patriotic Nuggets. 

constitutional discussions, nothing that has 
been said or done in favor of the great 
interests of universal man, has done this 
country more credit, at home and abroad, 
than the establishment of our body of clergy- 
men, their support by voluntary contribu- 
tions, and the general excellence of their 
character for piety and learning. 

The great truth has thus been proclaimed 
and proved, a truth which I believe will in 
time to come shake all the hierarchies of 
Europe, that the voluntary support of such 
a ministry, under free institutions, is a prac- 
ticable idea. 

The Rhode Island Government. 
January 27, 1848. 
What distinguishes American govern- 
ments as much as any thing else from any 
governments of ancient or of modern times, 
is the marvelous felicity of their representa- 
tive system. . . . The power is with the 
people ; but they cannot exercise it in masses 
or per capita ; they can only exercise it by 



Daniel Webster. 117 

their representatives. The whole system 
with us has been popular from the begin- 
ning. 

We are not to take the will of the people 
from public meetings, nor from tumultuous 
assemblies, by which the timid are terrified, 
the prudent are alarmed, and by which so- 
ciety is disturbed. These are not American 
modes of signifying the will of the people, 
and they never were. . . . What is this 
but anarchy ? What liberty is there here, 
but a tumultuary, tempestuous, violent, 
stormy liberty, a sort of South American 
liberty, without power except in its spasms, 
a liberty supported by arms to-day, crushed 
by arms to-morrow ? Is that our liberty ? 

All that is necessary here is, that the will 
of the people should be ascertained, by some 
regular rule of proceeding, prescribed by pre- 
vious law. . . . and thence arises the neces- 
sity for suffrage, which is the mode whereby 
each man's power is made to tell upon the 
constitution of the government, and in the 
enactment of laws. 



1 1 8 Patriotic Nuggets. 

Speech at Marshfield. 

September i, 1848. 
At this moment, there is no object upon 
earth so much attracting the gaze of the in- 
telligent and civilized nations of the earth as 
this great republic. All men look at us, all 
men examine our course. . . . They see us 
as that star of empire which half a century 
ago was represented as making its 
way westward. I wish they may see it as a 
mild, placid, though brilliant orb, moving 
athwart the whole heavens to the enlighten- 
ing and cheering of mankind ; and not as a 
meteor of fire and blood terrifying the na- 
tions. 

For the Constitution and the 
Union. March 7, 1850. 

Secession ! Peaceable session ! Sir, your 
eyes and mine are never destined to see that 
miracle. The dismemberment of this vast 
country without convulsion ! The breaking 
up of the fountains of the great deep with- 
out ruffling the surface ! Who is so foolish, 
I beg everybody's pardon, as to expect to see 



Daniel Webster, 119 

any such thing ? Sir, he who sees these 
States, now revolving in harmony around a 
common center, and expects to see them quit 
their places and fly off without convulsion, 
may look the next hour to see the heavenly 
bodies rush from their spheres, and jostle 
against each other in the realms of space, 
without causing the wreck of the universe. 

No, sir ! No, sir ! I will not state what 
might produce the disruption of the Union ; 
but. Sir, I see as plainly as I see the sun in 
heaven what that disruption itself must pro- 
duce ; I see that it must produce war, and 
such a war as I will not describe. 

Reception at Buffalo. 

May 22, 1851. 
I believe in party distinctions. I am a 
party man. There are questions belonging 
to party in which I take an interest, and 
there are opinions entertained by other par- 
ties which I repudiate ; but what of all that } 
If a house be divided against itself, it will 
fall, and crush everybody in it. We must 



ratriotic Nuggets. 



see that we maintain the government which 
is over us. We must see that we uphold the 
Constitution, and we must do so without re- 
gard to party. 

The Addition to the Capitol. 
July 4, 1 85 1. 
I will venture. ... to state, in a few 
words, what I take these American political 
principles in substance to be. They consist, 
as I think, in the first place, in the establish- 
ment of popular governments, on the basis 
of representation ; . . . The next funda- 
mental principle in our system is, that the 
will of the majority, fairly expressed through 
the means of representation, shall have the 
force of law. . . . And, as the necessary 
result of this, the third element is, that the 
law is the supreme rule for the government 
of all. . . . And, finally, another most 
important part of the great fabric of Ameri- 
can liberty is, that there shall be written 
constitutions, founded on the immediate au- 
thority of the people themselves, and regu- 
lating and restraining all the powers conferred 



Daniel Webster. I2I 

upon government, whether legislative, ex- 
ecutive, or judicial. 

This, fellow-citizens, I suppose to be a just 
summary of our American principles. 

And I now proceed to add, that the strong 
and deep-settled conviction of all intelligent 
persons amongst us is, that, in order to sup- 
port a useful and wise government upon 
these popular principles, the general educa- 
tion of the people, and the wide diffusion of 
pure morality and true religion, are indis- 
pensable. Individual virtue is a part of pub- 
lic virtue. 

I now do declare, in the face of all the in- 
telligent of the age, that, for the period which 
has elapsed from the day that Washington 
laid the foundation of this Capitol to the pre- 
sent time, there has been no country upon 
earth in which life, liberty, and property have 
been more amply and steadily secured, or 
more freely enjoyed, than in these United 
States of America. . . . Who is there that 
can stand upon the foundation of facts, ac- 
knowledged or proved, and assert that these 



122 Patriotic Nuggets. , 

our republican institutions have not answered I 
the true ends of government beyond all pre- ' 
cedent in human history ? 

We cannot, we dare not, we will not be- 
tray our sacred trust. . . . The bow that 
gilds the clouds in the heavens, the pillars 
that uphold the firmament, may disappear 
and fall away in the hour appointed by the 
will of God ; but until that day comes, or so 
long as our lives may last, no ruthless hand 
shall undermine that bright arch of Union 
and Liberty which spans the continent from 
Washington to California. 

And now, fellow-citizens, with hearts void 
of hatred, envy, and malice towards our own 
countrymen, or any of them, or towards the 
subjects or citizens of other governments, or 
towards any member of the great family of 
man ; but exulting, nevertheless, in our own 
peace, security, and happiness, in the grate- 
ful remembrance of the past, and the glori- 
ous hopes of the future, let us return to our 
homes, and with humility and devotion offer 
our thanks to the Father of all our mercies, 
political, social, and religious. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Here was a type of the true elder race, 
And one of Plutarch's men talked with us, face to face. 
—James Russell Lowell. 

New Salem, Ills. 

June 13, 1836. 
To the Editor of the Journal : — 

In your paper of last Saturday, I see a 
communication over the signature of 
" Many Voters," in whicli the candidates 
who are announced in the Journal are 
called upon to " show their hands." Agreed. 
Here's mine. 

I go for all sharing the privileges of the 
government who assist in bearing its bur- 
dens ; consequently, I go for admitting all 
whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes 
or bear arms (by no means excludmg females). 

If elected I shall consider the whole 
people of Sangamon my constituents, as 
\ well those that oppose as those that .support 
me. 



124 Patriotic Nuggets. 

Speech at Springfield. Ills. 1 
June 26, 1857. 
I think the authors of that notable instru- 
ment [the Declaration of Independence] 
intended to include ^z/Zmen, but they did not 
intend to declare all men equal /;^ all re- 
spects. They did not mean to say all were 
equal in color, size, intellect, moral develop- 
ments, or social capacity. They defined 
with tolerable distinctness in what respects 
they did consider all men created equal — 
equal with "certain inalienable rights, 
among which are life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness." This they said, and 
this they meant. They did not mean to 
assert the obvious untruth that all men \ 
were then actually enjoying that equality, ' 
nor yet that they were about to confer it \ 
immediately upon them. In fact, they had j 
no power to confer such a boon. They 1 
meant simply to declare the right, so that . 
the enforcement of it might follow as fast as ' 
circumstances should permit. 



Abraham Lincoln. 125 

Speech at Springfield, Ills. 

June 16, 1858. 
In my opinion, it [agitation] will not 
cease until a crisis shall have been reached 
and passed. " A house divided against 
itself can not stand." 1 I believe this govern- 
ment can not endure permanently half 
slave and half free. I do not expect the 
Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the 
house to fall— but I do expect it will cease to 
be divided. It will become all one thing, or 
all the other. Either the opponents of slavery 
will arrest the further spread of it, and 
place it where the public mind shall rest in 
the belief that it is in course of ultimate ex- 
tinction ; or its advocates will push it for- 
ward till it shall become alike lawful in all 
the States, old as well as new, North as 
well as South. 

Speech at Chicago. 

July 10, 1858. 
Those arguments that are made, that the 



See Webster, p. 



126 Patriotic Nuggets. 

inferior race are to be treated with as much 
allowance as they are capable of enjoying ; 
that as much is to be done for them as their 
condition will allow — what are these argu- 
ments ? They are the arguments that kings 
have made for enslaving the people in all 
ages of the world. You will find that all 
the arguments in favor of king-craft were of 
this class; they always bestrode the necks 
of the people — not that they wanted to do it, 
but because the people were better off for 
being ridden. 

Douglas Debate. 

October 7, 1858. 
If you will take the Judge's [Douglas's] 
speeches,and select the short and pointed sen- 
tences expressed by him,— as his declaration 
that he " don't care whether slavery is voted 
up or down" [in the Territories], —you will 
see at once that this is perfectly logical, if 
you do not admit that slavery is wrong. 
If you do admit that it is wrong. 
Judge Douglas cannot logically say he don't 
care whether a wrong is voted up or voted 



Abraham Li7icoln. 127 

down. ... he cannot logically say that 
anybody has a right to do wrong. 

To Republicans of Boston, Mass. 
April 6, 1859. 

This is a world of compensations; and he 
who would be no slave must consent to 
have no slave. Those who deny freedom 
to others deserve it not for themselves ; and 
under a just God, can not long retain it. 

Cooper Institute Speech, New York. 
February 27, i860. 
I do not mean to say we are bound to 
follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. 
To do so, would be to discard all the lights 
of current experience — to reject all progress, 
all improvement. What I do say is that if 
we would supplant the opinions and policy 
of our fathers in any case, we should do so 
upon evidence so conclusive, and argument 
so clear, that even their great authority, fairly 
considered and weighed, can not stand. 

Some of you [Southerners] delight to 
flaunt in our faces the warning against sec- 



128 Patriotic Nuggets. 

tional parties given by Washington in his 
Farewell Address. Less than eight years 
before Washington gave that warning, he 
had, as President of the United States, 
approved and signed an act of Congress en- 
forcing the prohibition of slavery in the 
North-Western Territory, which act em- 
bodied the policy of the government upon 
that subject, up to and at the very moment 
he penned that warning ; and about one 
year after he penned it he wrote La Fayette 
that he considered that prohibition a wise 
measure, expressing in the same connection 
his hope that we should some time have a 
confederacy of free States. 

Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sec- 
tionalism has still arisen upon this same sub- 
ject, is that warning a weapon in your hands 
against us, or in our hands against you ? 
Could Washington himself speak, would he 
cast the blame of that sectionalism upon us, 
who sustain his policy, or upon you, who 
repudiate it ? We respect that warning of 
Washington, and we commend it to you to- 



Abraha7n Lincoln. 129 

gether with his example pointing to the right 
application of it. 

Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet 
afford to let it alone where it is, because 
that much is due to the necessity arising 
from its actual presence in the nation ; but 
can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow 
it to spread into the national Territories, 
and to overrun us here in these free States ? 

If our sense of duty forbids this, then let 
us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effec- 
tively. Let us be diverted by none of those 
sophistical contrivances wherewith we are 
so industriously plied and belabored — con- 
trivances such as groping for some middle 
ground betw^een right and wrong : vain as 
the search for a man who should be neither 
a living man nor a dead man ; such as a 
policy of " don't care " on a question about 
which all true men do care. 

On His Way to Washington as Presi- 
dent Elect. February, 1861. 
At Columbus, O. — It is true, as has been 



130 Patriotic Nuggets. 

said by the President of the Senate, that 
very great responsibility rests upon me in 
the position to which the votes of the 
American people have called me. I am 
deeply sensible of that weighty responsi- 
bility. I cannot but know what you all 
know, that without a name, perhaps without 
a reason why I should have a name, there 
has fallen upon me a task such as did not 
rest even upon the Father of his Country, 
and so feeling, I can turn and look for that 
support without which it will be impossible 
for me to perform that great task. I turn, 
then, and look to the great American people, 
and to that God who has never forsaken 
them. 

At Philadelphia. — Your worthy mayor 
has expressed the wish, in which I join with 
him, that it were convenient for me to 
remain in your city long enough for me to 
consult your merchants and manufacturers ; 
or, as it were, to listen to those breathings 
rising within the consecrated walls wherein 
the Constitution of the United States, and, I 



Abraham Lincoln. 



will add, the Declaration of Independence, 
were originally framed and adopted. I 
assure you and your mayor that I had hoped 
on this occasion, and upon all occasions dur- 
ing my life, that I shall do nothing inconsistent 
with the teachings of these holy and most 
sacred walls. I have never asked anything 
that does not breathe from those walls. All 
my political warfare has been in favor of 
the teachings that come forth from these 
sacred walls. May my right hand forget 
its cunning and my tongue cleave to the 
roof of my mouth if ever I prove false to 
those teachings ! 

I have often inquired of myself what 
great principle or idea it was that kept this 
Confederacy so long together. !t was not 
the mere matter of the separation of the colo- 
nies from the motherland, but that senti- 
ment in the Declaration of Independence 
which gave Hberty, not alone to the people 
of this country, but hope to all the world, for 
all future time. . . . Now, my friends, can 
this country be saved on that basis ? If 



132 Patriotic Nuggets. 

it can, I will consider myself one of the 
happiest men in the world if I can help to 
save it. If it cannot be saved upon that 
principle, it will be truly awful. But if 
this country cannot be saved without giv- 
ing up that principle, I was about to say I 
would rather be assassinated on this spot 
than surrender it. 

My friends, this is wholly an unprepared 
speech. I did not expect to be called 
on to say a word when I came here. I 
supposed I was merely to do something 
toward raising a flag ; I may, therefore, 
have said something indiscreet. But I have 
said nothing but what I am willing to live 
by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty 
God, to die by. 

First Inaugural Address. 

March 4, 1861. 
A disruption of the Federal Union, here- 
tofore only menaced, is now formidably at- 
tempted. I hold that in the contemplation 
of universal law and of the Constitution, the 



Abraham Lincoln. 133 

Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetu- 
ity is implied, if not expressed, in the 
fundamental law of all national governments. 
It is safe to assert that no government pro- 
per ever had a provision in its organic law 
for its termination. 

If the United States be not a government 
proper, but an association of States in the 
nature of a contract merely, can it, as a con- 
tract, be peaceably unmade by less than all 
the parties who made it } One party to a 
contract may violate it — break it, so to 
speak; but does it not require all to lawfully 
rescind it ? Descending from these general 
principles, we find the proposition that, in 
legal contemplation the Union is perpetual 
confirmed by the history of the Union 
itself. 

It follows from these views that no State, 
upon its own mere motion can lawfully get 
out of the Union ; that resolves and ordinan- 
ces to that effect are legally void ; and that 
acts of violence, wuthin any State or States, 



134 Patriotic Nuggets. 

against the authority of the United States, 
are insurrectionary or revolutionary, accord- 
ing to circumstances. 

I therefore consider that, in view of the 
Constitution and the laws, the Union is un- 
broken ; and to the extent of my ability 
I shall take care, as the Constitution itself 
expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws ot 
the Union shall be faithfully executed in all 
the States. 

In doing this there needs to be no blood- 
shed or violence ; and there shall be none, 
unless it be forced upon the national au- 
thority. 

The power confided to me will be used to 
hold, occupy, and possess the property and 
places belonging to the government, and 
to collect the duties and imposts ; but beyond 
what may be necessary for these objects, 
there will be no invasion, no using of force 
against or among the people anywhere. 

No organic law can ever be framed with 
a provision specifically applicable to every 



AbrahaDi Lincoln. 135 

question which may occur in practical ad- 
ministration. No foresight can anticipate, 
nor any document of reasonable length con- 
tain, express provisions for all possible 
questions. Shall fugitives from labor be 
surrendered by national or by State author- 
ity? The Constitution does not expressly 
say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the 
Territories ? The Constitution does not ex- 
pressly say. Must Congress protect slavery 
in the Territories } The Constitution does 
not expressly say. From questions of this 
class spring all our constitutional controver- 
sies, and we divide upon them into majorities 
and minorities. 

If the minority wall not acquiesce, the 
majority must, or the government must 
cease. There is no other alternative ; for 
continuing the government is acquiescence 
on one side or the other. If a minority in 
such case will secede rather than acquiesce, 
they make a precedent which, in turn, will 
divide and ruin them ; for a minority of 
their own will secede from them whenever 



1 36 Patriotic Nuggets. 

a majority refuses to be controlled by such 
a minority. 

A majority held in constraint by constitu- 
tional checks and limitations, and always 
changing easily with deliberate changes of 
popular opinions and sentiments, is the only 
true sovereign of a free people. Whoever 
rejects it does, of necessity, fly to anarchy 
or to despotism. 

Physically speaking, we can not separate ; 
w^e cannot remove our respective sections 
from each other, nor build an impassable 
wall between them. A husband and wife 
may be divorced, and go out of the presence 
and beyond the reach of each other ; but the 
different parts of our country can not do 
this. They can not but remain face to face, 
and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, 
must continue between them. Is it possible, 
then, to make that intercourse more advan- 
tageous or more satisfactory after separation 
than before 1 

The Chief Magistrate derives all his au- 



Abraham Lincoln. 



terred none upon him to fix the term for the 
separation of the States. The people them- 
selves can do this also if they choose ; but 
the executive, as such, has nothing to do 
with It. His duty is to administer the pres- 
ent government, as it came to his hands, and 
to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his sue- 
cessor. 

By the frame of the government under 
which we live, this same people have wisely 
given their public servants but little power 
for mischief ; and have, with equal wisdom 
provided for the return of that little to their 
own hands at very short intervals. While 
the people retain their virtue and vigilance 
no administration, by any extreme of wicked- 
ness or folly, can very seriously injure the 
government in the short space of four years. 

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly 
and well upon this whole subject. Nothing 
valuable can be lost by taking time If 
there be an object to hurry any of vou, in 
hot haste, to a step which you would never 



1 38 Patriotic Nuggets. 



take deliberately, that object will be frus- 
trated by taking time ; but no good object 
can be frustrated by it. 

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-coun- 
trymen, and not in mine, is the momentous 
issue of civil war. The government will 
not assail you. You can have no conflict 
without being yourselves the aggressors. 
You have no oath registered in Heaven 
to destroy the government; while I shall 
have the most solemn one to "preserve, 
protect, and defend it." 

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, 
but friends. We must not be enemies. 
Though passion may have strained, it must 
not break our bonds of affection. The 
mystic chords of memory, stretching from 
every battlefield and patriot grave to every 
living heart and hearthstone all over this 
broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the 
Union when again touched, as surely they 
will be, by the better angels of our nature. 



AbrahaDi Lincoln. 



^^9 

Message to Congress— Special Ses- 
sion. July 4, 1861. 
In this act, [the attack on Fort Sumter] 
discarding all else, they have forced upon 
the country the distinct issue : " immediate 
dissolution, or blood." 

And this issue embraces more than the 
fate of these United States. It presents to 
the whole family of man the question, 
whether a constitutional republic, or democ- 
racy,— a government of the people, by the 
same people— can or cannot maintain its 
territorial integrity against its own domestic 
Iocs. ... It forces us to ask : " Is there, 
in all republics, this inherent and fatal weak- 
ness } " " Must a government of necessity 
be too strong for the liberties of its own 
people, or too weak to maintain its own ex- 
istence } " 

^ It might seem, at first thought, to be of 
little difference whether the present move- 
ment at the South be called " secession " or 
"rebellion." The movers, however, well 
understand the difference, . . . They knew 



I40 Patriotic Nuggets. 

their people possessed as much of moral 
sense, as much of devotion to law and order 
and as much pride in and reverence for the 
history and government of their common 
country, as any other civilized and patriotic 
people. . . . They invented an ingenious 
sophism, which, if conceded, was followed 
by perfectly logical steps, through all the 
incidents, to the complete destruction of the 
Union. The sophism itself is, that any 
State of the Union may, consistently with 
the National Constitution, and therefore 
lawfully and peacefully, withdraw from the 
Union without the consent of the Union or 
of any other State. 

What is a " sovereignty," in the political 
sense of the term ? Would it be far wrong 
to define it " a political community, without 
a political superior"? Tested by this, no 
one of our States except Texas ever was a 
sovereignty. And even Texas gave up the 
character on coming into the Union. 

The States have their status in the Union, 



Abraham Lincoln. 141 

and they have no other legal status. If they 
break from this, they can only do so against 
law and by revolution. The Union, and 
not themselv^es separately, procured their 
independence and their liberty. 

The nation purchased with money the 
countries out of which several of these States 
-were formed. Is it just that they shall 
go off without leave, and without refund- 
ing.? .... If one State may secede, so may 
another : and when all shall have seceded 
none is left to pay the debts. Is this quite 
just to creditors ? Did we notify them of 
this sage view of ours when we borrowed 
[ their money ? 

Our popular Government has often been 
\ called an experiment. Two points in it our 
; people have already settled — the successful 
I establishing and the successful administer- 
^1 ing of it. One still remains — its successful 
I maintenance against a formidable internal 
\ attempt to overthrow it. 

It was with the greatest regret that the 



142 Patriotic Nuggets. 

executive found the duty of employing the 
war-power in defense of the government 
forced upon him. lie could but perform 
this duty or surrender the existence of the 
government. No compromise by public 
servants could, in this case, be a cure ; not 
that compromises are not often proper, but 
that no popular government can long sur- 
vive a marked precedent that those who 
carry an election can only save the Govern- 
ment from immediate destruction by giving 
up the main point upon which the people 
gave the election. The people themselves, 
and not their servants, can safely reverse 
their own deliberate decisions. 

To Horace Greeley. 

Aug. 22, 1862. 
As to the policy I " seem to be pursuing," 
as you say, I have not meant to leave any 
one in doubt. I would save the Union, I 
would save it in the shortest way under the 
Constitution. . . . My paramount object is 
to save the Union, and not either to save or 
destroy slavery. 



Abraham Lincoln. 143 

If I could save the Union without freeing 
any slave, I would do it : if I could save it by 
freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; and if I 
could do it by freeing some and leaving 
others alone, I would also do that. 

What I do about slavery and the colored 
race, I do because I beheve it helps to save 
this Union ; and what I forbear, I forbear 
because I do not believe it would help to 
save the Union. 

I shall do less whenever I shall believe 
what I am doing hurts the cause, and I 
shall do more whenever I believe doing 
more helps the cause. I shall try to correct 
errors when shown to be errors, and I shall 
adopt new views so fast as they shall appear 
to be true views. 

Preliminary Proclamation of Eman- 
cipation. September 22, 1862. 
I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States of America, and commander- 
in-chief of the army and navy thereof, do 
hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, 



144 

as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for 
the object of practically restoring the Con- 
stitutional relation between the United States 
and each of the States, and the people 
thereof, in which States that relation is or 
may be suspended or disturbed. 

That it is my purpose, upon the next meet- 
ing of Congress, to again recommend the 
adoption of a practical measure tendering 
pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or 
rejection of all Slave States, so-called, the 
people whereof may not then be in rebellion 
against the United States, and which States 
may then have voluntarily adopted, or 
thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate 
or gradual abolishment of slavery within 
their respective limits ; . . . . 

That on the first day of January, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
dred and sixty-three, all persons held as 
slaves within any State or designated part 
of a State the people whereof shall then be 
in rebellion against the United States, shall 
be then, thenceforward, and forever free ; 
and the Executive Government of the United 



Abraham Lincoln. 145 

States, including the military and naval 
authority thereof, will recognize and main- 
tain the freedom of such persons, and will 
do no act or acts to repress such persons, or 
any of them, in any efforts they may make 
for their actual freedom. 

Second Annual Message to Congress. 
December i, 1862. 

A nation may be said to consist of its ter- 
ritory, its people, and its laws. The terri- 
tory is the only part which is of certain 
durability. '* One generation passeth away, 
and another generation cometh, but the 
earth abideth forever." It is of the first im- 
portance to duly consider and estimate this 
ever-enduring part. . . . 

Our national strife springs not from our 
permanent part, not from the land we 
inhabit, not from our national homestead. 
There is no possible severing of this but 
would multiply, and not mitigate, evils 
among us. In all its adaptations and apti- 
tudes it demands union and abhors separa- 
tion. In fact, it would ere long force re- 



146 Patriotic Nuggets. 

union, however much of blood and treasure 
the separation might have cost. 

Our strife pertains to ourselves — to the 
passing generations of men ; and it can, with- 
out convulsion, be hushed forever with the 
passing of one generation, 

[This Message proposed a Constitutional 
Amendment offering compensation by the 
United States to all States which should 
abolish slavery before January i, 1900 ; con- 
firming the liberty of all slaves freed by the 
chances of war, with compensation to loyal 
owners ; and providing for governmental 
aid in colonizing free colored persons with 
their own consent. This proposition arose 
from Mr. Lincoln's sense of justice to the 
loyal slave-holding Border States, and was 
meant to provide against the inevitable de- 
struction of their slave-property when the 
Final Proclamation should be made. But 
Congress did not second him, and nothing 
came of it.] 

Fellow-citizens, we can not escape Iiis- 
tory. We, of this Congress and this Ad- 



Abraham Lincoln. 147 

ministration, will be remembered in spite of 
ourselves. No personal significance or in- 
significance can spare one or another of us. 
The fiery trial through which we pass will 
light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the 
latest generation. We say we are for the 
Union. The world will not forget that we 
say this. We know how to save the Union. 
The world knows we do know how to save 
it. We — even we here — hold the power 
and bear the responsibility. In giving free- 
dom to the slave we assure freedom to the 
free — honorable alike in what we give and 
what we preserve. We shall nobly save or 
meanly lose the last, best hope of earth. 
Other means may succeed ; this could not 
fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, 
just, — a way which, if followed, the world 
will forever applaud, and God must forever 
bless. 

Final Emancipation Proclamation. 
January ist, 1863. 
I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, by virtue of the power in me 



148 Patriotic Ntcggcts. 

vested as commander-in-chief of the army 
and navy of the United States, in time of 
actual armed rebellion against the authority 
and government of the United States, and 
as a tit and necessary w^ar measure for sup- 
pressing such rebellion, do, on this first_day 
of January, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and 
in accordance with my purpose so to do, 
publicly proclaimed for the full period of 
100 days, from the day first above men- 
tioned, order and designate as the States 
and parts of States wherein the people 
thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion 
against the United States, the following, 
to wit : . . . . 

And by virtue of the power and for the pur- 
pose aforesaid, I do order and declare that 
all persons held as slaves within said 
designated States and parts of States, are, 
and henceforward shall be, free ; and that 
the Executive Government of the United 
States, including the military and naval 
authorities, thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of said persons. . , . 



Abraham Lincoln. 149 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to 
be an act of justice, warranted by the Con- 
stitution upon military necessity, I invoke 
the considerate judgment of mankind, and 
the gracious favor of Almighty God. 

ToThe Working-Men of Manchester 
England. January 19, 1863. 
I have the honor to acknowledge the 
address and resolutions which you sent me 
on the eve of the New Year. ... I know 
and deeply deplore the sufferings which the 
working-men at Manchester and in all Eu- 
rope, are called to endure in this crisis. . . . 
Through the action of our disloyal 
citizens, the working-men of Europe have 
been subjected to severe trials, for the 
purpose of forcing their sanction to that 
attempt. Under the circumstances I cannot 
but regard your decisive utterances as an in- 
stance of sublime Christian heroism which 
has not been surpassed in any age or in any 
country. ... I do not doubt that the 
sentiments you have expressed will be sus- 
tained by your great nation ; and on the other 



150 Patriotic Nuggets. 

hand, I have no hesitation in assuring you 
that they will excite admiration, esteem, and 
the most reciprocal feelings of friendship 
among the American people. 

To General John M. Schofield. 

[As to Missouri.] May 27, 1863 
Let your military measures be strong 
enough to repel the invader and keep the 
peace, and not so strong as to unnecessarily 
harrass and persecute the people. It is a 
difficult role, and so much greater will be the 
honor if you perform it well. If both fac- 
tions, or neither, shall abuse you, you will 
probably be about right. Beware of being 
assailed by one and praised by the other. 

The Gettysburg Address. 

November 19, 1863. 
Forescore and seven years ago our fathers 
brought forth upon this continent, a new 
nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated 
to the proposition that all men are created 
equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil 



Abraka?n Lincoln. 151 

war, testing whether that nation, or any 
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can 
long endure. We are met on a great battle- 
field of that war. We have come to dedicate 
a portion of that field, as a final resting- 
place for those who here gave their lives 
that that nation might live. It is altogether 
fitting and proper that we should do this- 
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedi- 
cate — we can not consecrate — we can not 
hallow — this ground. The brave men, living 
and dead, who struggled here, have conse- 
crated it, far above our poor power to add or 
detract. The world will little note, nor 
long remember what we say here, but it 
can never forget what they did here. It is 
for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated 
here to the unfinished work which they who 
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the 
great task remaining before us— that from 
these honored dead we take increased devo- 
tion to that cause for which they gave the 
last full measure of devotion ; that we 
here highly resolve that these dead shall not 



152 Patriotic Nuggets, 

have died in vain ; that this nation under '• 
God, shall have a new birth of freedom ; and | 
that government of the people, by the \ 
people, for the people, shall not perish from 1 
the earth. ; 

To A. G. Hodges. I 

April 4, 1864. I 
I claim not to have controlled events, but * 
confess plainly that events have controlled 
me. ... If God now wills the removal of 
a great wrong, and wills also that we of the 
North, as well as you of the South, shall pay '- 
fairly for our complicity in that wrong, im- 1 
partial history will find therein new cause to 1 
attest and revere the justice and goodness . 
of God. 



Informal Speech, After His Second \ 
Election. November 10, 1864. 
The election, along with its incidental and J 
undesirable strife, has done good, too. It ' 
has demonstrated that a people's govern- 
ment can sustain a national election in the 
midst of a great civil war. Until now, it 



Abraham Lmcoln. 153 

has not been known to the world that this 
was a possibility. ... It shows, also, to 
the extent yet known, that we have more 
men now than we had when the war began. 
Gold is good in its place, but living, brave, 
patriotic men, are better than gold. 

Fourth Annual Message to Con- 
gress. December 6, 1864. 
In stating a single condition of peace, I 
mean simply to say, that the war will cease 
on the part of the government whenever it 
shall have ceased on the part of those who 
began it. 

Second Inaugural Address. 

March 4, 1865. 
Neither party expected for the war the 
magnitude or the duration which it has 
already attained. Neither anticipated that 
the cause of the conflict might cease with, or 
even before, the conflict itself should cease 
.... The Almighty has his own purposes 
.... Fondly do we hope — fervently do we 
pray — that this mighty scourge of war may 



154 Patriotic Nuggets. 

speedily pass away. Yet. if God wills that it 
continue until all the wealth piled by the 
bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of 
unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every 
drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be 
paid by another drawn with the sword, as 
was said three thousand years ago. so still it 
must be said, - The judgments of the Lord 
are true and righteous altogether." 

With malice toward none ; with charity for 
all ; 1 with firmness in the right, as God gives j 
us to see the right, let us strive on to finish ^ 
the work we are in ; to bind up the nation's , 
wounds ; to care for him who shall have borne ! 
the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan j 
_to do all which may achieve and cherish a j 
just and lasting peace among ourselves, and I 
with all nations. \ 

To Thurlow Weed. ^ 

March 15, 1865. i 

Every one likes a compliment. Thank you , 

for yours on my little notification speech 1 

1 See Webster, page 122. 



Abraham Lincoln. 155 

and on the recent inaugural address. I 
expect the latter to wear as well as — perhaps 
better than — anything I have produced ; but 
I believe it is not immediately popular. Men 
are not flattered by being shown that there 
has been a difference of purpose between 
the Almighty and them. ... It is a truth 
which I thought needed to be told, and, as 
whatever of humiliation there is in it falls 
most directly on myself, I thought others 
might afford for me to tell it. 

Mr. Lincoln's Last Speech. 

April II, 1865. 
By these recent successes [the evacuation 
of Petersburg and Richmond, and Lee's Sur- 
render] the reinauguration of the national 
authority — reconstruction — which has had a 
large share of thought from the first, is 
pressed much more closely upon our atten- 
tion. It is fraught with great difficulty. 
Unlike a case of war between indepen- 
dent nations, there is no authorized organ 
for us to treat with — no one man has authority 
to give up the rebellion for any other man. 



1 56 Patriotic Ni4ggets. ; 

We simply must begin with and mould from 
disorganized and discordant elements. Nor : 
is it a small additional embarrassment ; 
that we, the loyal people, differ among our- 
selves as to the mode, manner, and measure | 
of reconstruction. 

We all agree that the seceded States, so- | 
called, are out of their proper practical re- j 
lation with the Union, and that the sole object 
of the government, civil and military, in re- * 
gard to those States, is to again get them into j 
that proper practical relation. I believe that \ 
it is not only possible, but in fact easier to do J 
this without deciding or even considering ^ 
whether these States have ever been out of \ 
the Union, than with it. Finding themselves , 
safely at home, it would be utterly immater- • 
ial whether they had ever been abroad. Let 
us all join in doing the acts necessary to re- 
storing the proper practical relations between 
these States and the Union, and each for- 
ever after innocently indulge his own 
opinion whether in doing the acts he 
brought the States from without into the 



Abrahaf?i Lhicoln. 157 

Union, or only gave them proper assistance, 
they never having been out of it. 

So great peculiarities pertain to each State, 
and such important and sudden changes 
occur in the same State, and withal so new 
and unprecedented is the whole case that no 
exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be 
precribed as to details and collaterals. 
Such exclusive and inflexible plan would 
surely become a new entanglement. Im- 
portant principles may, and must, be inflexi- 
ble. 



HENRY WARD BEECHER. 

"To his undying: fame the world and his memory 
stand in no need of witnesses." 

—William Ewart Gladstone. 

Shall We Compromise? 

February 21, 1850. 
These oppugnant elements, Slavery and 
Liberty, — inherent in our political system, 
animating our constitution, checkering our 
public policy, breeding in statesmen opposite 
principles of government, and making our 
whole wisdom of public legislation on many 
of the greatest questions cross-eyed and con- 
tradictory, — these elements are seeking each 
other's life. One or the other must die. 

Let no man suppose that the contentions 
which now agitate the land have sprung 
from the rash procedure of a few men — 
the hot heads either of the North or of the 
South. We are in the midst of a collision 
not of men, but of principles and political 
institutions. 



i6o Patriotic Nuggets. 

We believe that the compromises of the 
Constitution looked to the destruction of sla- 
very and not to its establishment. 

There never was a plainer question for 
the North. It is her duty openly, firmly, 
and forever to refuse to slavery another inch 
of territory, and to see that it never gets 
any by fraud. . . .The path of Duty, though 
a steep one, and often toilsome, is always 
straight and plain. Those are the labyrin- 
thine roads, which, winding through sloughs 
and thickets, or embosked and dark, seek to 
find a way around the rocks and steeps, and 
to come to the gate of Success without 
climbing the hill of Difficulty. 

Article in the Independent [Fremont 
Campaign]. June 26, 1856. 

Mr. Buchanan, in his letter of acceptance, 
holds out to the North the ever grateful and 
always deceitful promise of peace. . . . 
Every vote for him is a vote for war. No 
doubt Mr. Buchanan may desire to admin- 
ister for peace. But when a man has gone 



Henry JVard Beecher. i6i 

oat into the rapids, what he wishes has very 
little to do with the question of his going 
over the falls. . . . The [Democratic] Plat- 
form lies before the public as a man-of-war 
lies peacefully at anchor. Her sides are 
still. Her decks are quiet. Her magazine 
sleeps. She is peaceful indeed, and yet she 
is stuffed full of materials that only need a 
quickening, and every port-hole will fly open, 
every cannon blaze, and the whole ship belch 
thunder and lightning with broadsides of 
death. 

Until liberty controls the institutions of 
liberty, until freemen rule in the land of 
freedom, we shall have nothing but disturb- 
ance. 

The Nation's Duty to Slavery. 
October 30, 1859. 
After John Brown's Raid. 
I certainly think that even slaves would be 
made immeasurably better by liberty ; but I 
do not believe they would be made better by 
liberty gained by insurrection or rebellion in 



i62 Patriotic Nuggets. 

the peculiar circumstances which surround 
them at the South. . . . Freedom, with a law 
and government, is an unspeakable good, 
but without them is a mischief. And any 

thing that tends to incite among men a vague ' 

insurrectionary spirit is a great and cruel , 

wrong to them. | 

] 

We must quicken all the springs of feel- \ 
ing in the Free States in behalf of human 

liberty, and create a public sentiment, based , 

upon truths of Christian manhood. For if j 

we act to any good purpose on ihe minds of . 

the South, we must do it through a salutary j 

and pure public sentiment in the North. j 

When we have corrected our own prac- j 

tice, and set an example of the right spirit, \ 

then we shall have a position from which to j 

exert a beneficial public influence on the : 

minds of Southern slaveholders. For this j 

there must be full and free discussion. ''{ 

Under our institutions, public opinion is the ,i 

monarch ; and free speech and debate form ] 

public opinion. J 



Henry Ward Beecher. 163 

If you wish to work for the enfranchise- 
ment of the African, seek to make him a 
better man. Teach him to be an obedient 
servant, and an honest, true, Christian man. 
These virtues are God's step-stones to Hb- 
erty. . . . Truth, honor, fidelity, manhood, — 
these things in the slave will prepare him 
for freedom. It is the low animal condi- 
tion of the African that enslaves him. 
It is moral enfranchisement that will break 
his bonds. 

Against a Compromise of Principle. 
November 29, i860. 
Crowns were once made of gold beaten 
out on the people's back. Now the strong- 
est crowns are made of paper, — the paper 
votes of the common people. 

It is always safe to be right ; and our 
business is not so much to seek peace as to 
seek the causes of peace. Expedients are 
for an hour, but principles are for the ages. 

Can any man believe that peace can come 
by comproinise } It is a delusive hope. « „ . 



164 Patriotic Nuggets. 

Compromises are only procrastinations of 
an inevitable settlement, with the added 
burden of accumulated interest. 

Our Blameworthiness. 

January 4, 1861. 
The same thing leads to the oppression 
of laborers among us that leads to oppres- 
sion on the plantation. The grinding of the 
poor, the advantages which capital takes of 
labor, the oppression of the farm, the oppres- 
sion of the road, the oppression of the shop, 
the oppression of the ship, are all of the 
same central nature, and as guilty before 
God as the more systematic and overt 
oppressions of the plantation. It is always 
the old human heart that sins. North or 
South ; and the natures of pride and of dis- 
honesty are universal. We have our own 
account to render. 

I should violate my own convictions, if, 
in the presence of more nearly present and 
more exciting influences, I should neglect 
to mention the sins of this nation against the 



Henry IVard Beecher, 165 

Indian, who, as much as the slave, is dumb, 
but who, unlike the slave, has almost 
none to think of him, and to speak of his 
wrongs. ... It is a sorry commentary on a 
Christian nation, and indeed upon religion 
itself, that the freest and most boastfully re- 
ligious people on the globe are absolutely 
fatal to any weaker people that they touch. 

If the Bible can be opened that all the 
fiends of hell may, as in a covered passage, 
walk through it to do mischief on earth, I say, 
blessed be infidels ! . . . . [But] wherever 
the Bible has been allowed to be free, wher- 
ever it has been knocked out of the king's 
hand, and out of the priest's hand, it has 
carried light like the morning sun, rising over 
hill and vale round and round the world ; and 
will do it again ! 

The Battle Set in Array. 

April 14, 1861. 
The whole lesson of the past, then, is that 
safety and honor come by holding fast to 
one's principles; by pressing them with 



1 66 Patriotic Nuggets. 

courage ; by going into darkness and defeat 
cheerfully for them. 

Eighty years of unexampled prosperity 
have gone far toward making us a people 
that judge of moral questions by their rela- 
tion to our convenience and ease. . . . 'And 
now if it please God to do that which daily 
we pray that he may avert, — if it please God 
to wrap this nation in war, — one result will 
follow : we shall be called to suffer for our 
faith. We shall be called to the heroism of 
doing and daring, and bearing and suffering, 
for the things which we believe to be vital to 
the salvation of this people. 

On these conditions we may have peace. 
If we reject these conditions we are to have 
separation, demoralization of government, 
and war. . . . If you have peace, you are to 
stigmatize the whole history of the past ; you 
are to yield your religious convictions ; you 
are to give over the government into the 
hands of factious revolutionists ; you are to 
suppress every manly sentiment, and every 



Henry Ward Beecher. 167 

sympathy for the oppressed. . . . Give me 
a war redder than blood and fiercer than fire, 
if this terrific infliction is necessary that I 
may maintain my faith of God in human 
liberty, my faith of the fathers in the instru- 
ments of liberty, my faith in this land as the 
appointed abode and chosen refuge of liberty 
for all the earth ! War is terrible, but that 
abyss of ignominy is yet more terrible. 

The National Flag. ^ 

May, 1 86 1. 
A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's 
flag, sees not the flag but the nation itself. 
And whatever may be its symbols, its insig- 
nia, he reads chiefly in the flag the govern- 
ment, the principles, the truths, the history, 
that belong to the nation that sets it forth. 

This nation has a banner, too ; and until 
recently wherever it streamed abroad men 
saw daybreak bursting on their eyes. . . . 
The stars upon it were to the pining nations 

1 Delivered to two companies of the " Brooklyn 
Fourteenth Volunteer Regiment,'" many of them 
members of Plymouth Church. 



Patriotic Nitggets, 



like the bright morning stars of God, and the 
stripes upon it were beams of morning light. 
As at early dawn the stars shine forth even 
while it grows light, and then as the sun 
advances that light breaks into banks and 
streaming lines of color, the glowing red and 
intense white striving together and ribbing 
the horizon with bars effulgent, so, on the 
American flag, stars and beams of many- 
colored light shine out together. ... It is 
the banner of dawn. It means Liberty ; and 
the galley-slave, the poor oppressed conscript, 
the trodden-down creature of foreign des- 
potism, sees in the American flag that very 
promise and prediction of God, — " The people 
which sat in darkness saw a great light ; and 
to them which sat in the region and shadow 
of death light is sprung up." 

How glorious, then, has been its origin ! 
How glorious has been its history ! How 
divine is its meaning ! In all the world is 
there another banner that carries such hope, 
such grandeur of spirit, such soul-inspiring 
truth, as our dear old American flag, made 



Henry Ward Beecher. 169 

by liberty, made for liberty, nourished in its 
spirit, carried in its service, and never, not 
once in all the earth, made to stoop to des- 
potism ! Never, — did I say ? Alas ! Only 
to that worst despotism. Southern Slavery, 
has it bovired ! Remember, every one of you, 
that the slaveholders of the South, alone of all 
the world, have put their feet upon the Amer- 
ican flag ! 

Accept it, then, in all its fullness of mean- 
ing. It is not a painted rag. It is a whole 
national history. It is the Constitution. It 
is the government. It is the free people that 
stand in the government on the Constitution. 
Forget not what it means ; and for the sake 
of its ideas, rather than its mere emblazonry, 
be true to your country's flag. By your 
hands lift it ; but let your lifting it be no 
holiday display. It must be advanced "<5^- 
cause of the truth.'" 

The Camp, its Dangers and Duties. 

May, 1 86 1. 
It has been the policy of this nation to dis- 
courage standing armies. It is a wise 



1 70 Patriotic Nuggets. 

policy, and it never appeared so wise as now. 
Standing armies are always dangerous ; and 
I can hardly doubt that, had there been a 
hundred thousand soldiers subject to the 
control of the men just ejected from this 
government, our liberties would have been 
in peril. . . . The theory of our people has 
been, that, as the common people framed 
their government, administer their govern- 
ment, and are the sources of power and of 
political influence in that government, so 
and in like manner the common people shall 
be their own soldiers, and do their own 
fighting, when it is necessary. War will 
not be unnecessarily provoked when the men 
that provoke the war are obliged themselves 
to wage it. 

Modes and Duties of Emancipation. 
November 26, 1861. 
If there be in the hand of the war-power, 
as John Quincy Adams thought there was, 
a right of emancipation, then let that be 
shown, and, in God's name, be employed ! 
But if there be given to us no right by our 



Henry Ward Beecher. i^ji 

Constitution to enter upon the States with a 
legislation subversive of their whole interior 
economy, not all the mischiefs of slavery, 
and certainly not our own impatience under 
its burdens and vexations, should tempt us 
to usurp it. This conflict must be carried on 
through our institutions, not over them. 
Revolution is not the remedy for rebellion. 
The exercise on the part of our government 
of unlawful powers cannot be justified, ex- 
cept to save the nation from absolute de- 
struction. . . . This is not a plea against 
immediate emancipation ; it is but a solemn 
caution, lest, smarting from wrong, we 
seize the opportunity inconsiderately to de- 
stroy one evil by a process that shall leave 
us at the mercy of all others that time may 
bring. 

The Success of American Democracy. 
April 13, 1862. 
There are such things as American ideas, 
distinctive, peculiar, national. Not that 
they were first discovered here, or that they 
are entertained only here ; but because more 



172 Patriotic Nuggets. 

than anywhere else they lie at the root of in- 
stitutions, and are working out the laws and 
the policies of this people. 

The root idea is this : that man is the 
most sacred trust of God to the world ; that 
his value is derived from his moral relations, 
from his divinity. . . . We stand in contrast 
with the world in holding and teaching it ; 
that men, having been once thoroughly 
educated, are to be absolutely trusted. 

No pains are spared, we know, in Europe, 
to educate princes and nobles who are to 
govern. No expense is counted too great, 
in Europe, to prepare the governing classes 
for their function. America has her govern- 
ing class, too ; and that governing class is 
the whole people. It is a slower work, be- 
cause it is so much larger. 

It is impossible for men who have not 
seen it to understand that there is no society 
possible that will bear such expansion and 
contraction, such strains and burdens, as a 
society made up of free educated common 
people, with democratic institutions. 



Henry Ward Beecher. 173 

A foreigner would think, pending a presi- 
dential election, that the end of the world 
had come. The people roar and dash like 
an ocean. " No government," he would 
say, " was ever strong enough to hold such 
wild and tumultuous enthusiasm, and zeal, 
and rage." True. There is not a gover?i- 
7}ie7it strong enough to hold them. Nothing 
but j-^^-government will do it : that will. 

Educate men to take care of themselves, 
individually and in masses, and then let the 
winds blow ; then let the storms fall ; then 
let excitements burn, and men will learn to 
move freely upon each other, as do drops of 
water in the ocean. 

Where else was ever a government that 
could bear to allow entire free discussion ? 
We grow strong under it. Voting is the 
cure of evil with us. Liberty, that is dan- 
gerous abroad, is our very safety. 

National Injustice and Penalty. 
September 28, 1862. 
It is important to know that the govern- 



174 Patriotic Nuggets. 

ment of God over nations is conducted by 
an administration of natural laws. ... It is 
said that natural laws are stated and immut- 
able. That is very well for a popular expres- 
sion, but it will not bear examination. For 
there is nothing that is less immutable than 
a law ; nothing that is adapted to have more 
elasticity ; nothing that may be more end- 
lessly varied by the degree of intelligence 
that you bring to bear upon it, and the ad- 
vantage which you choose to take of it. . . 
And the difference between civilization and 
barbarism is the difference between knowing 
how to use natural laws and not knowing 
how to use them. 

It takes longer to make a nation account- 
able than an individual. But in its longer 
period a nation is held accountable for just 
exactly the same things that an individual is. 
For a million men have no right, because 
they are a million, to do what each individ- 
ual one of them has no right to do, against a 
natural law. 

The South has taken such an unfortunate 



Hejiry Ward Beecher. 175 

position in this war, for slavery, and she has 
sinned against such great light, that God is 
bringing down upon her condign punishment. 
We, too, are suffering in the North, and 
in the same way that we ought to. ... I 
am not making complaint against the South 
distinctively, but against the Nation. And 
by the time you have paid two thousand 
million dollars of taxes, and have but just be- 
gun, I think that the Lord will have got back 
pretty much all that the North has made out 
of slavery ! God is a great tax-gatherer ; he 
is out now on that errand ; and he will have 
a prosperous time ! 

The Ground and Forms of Govern- 
ment. November 22, 1862. 

Governments are always the legitimate 
outworkings of the condition of those gov- 
erned ; and there cannot, for any prolonged 
period, be a government that is not, in the 
nature of things, adapted to those under 
it. . . . Governments are shadows that na- 
tions and peoples themselves cast ; and they 
usually measure in some degree the propor- 



176 Patriotic Nuggets. 

tions of the peoples or nations that cast 
them. . . . When all men are ignorant, you 
will have absolute monarchies ; when a part 
are intelligent and the rest are ignorant, you 
will have aristocracies ; and when the whole 
are intelligent, you will have democracies, or 
republican governments. 

Republican governments cannot be had 
by any mere legislation. They must be the 
effect of compelling causes. Government is 
an outworking of the spirit of the people, 
and it holds a constant relation to their 
actual condition. If men are ignorant, or 
morally low, even under republics, they 
will cease to be self-governing. . . . Yet, 
in spite of all delays and retrocessions and 
plottings, unquestionably the human race is 
developing right on toward this final and best 
form of government. . . . And the tendency 
of the whole world at present, in every, one 
of its departments, is to develop the common 
people. 

If you examine the tendency of inven- 
tions and mechanic arts, you shall find that, 



Henry Ward Beecher. 177 

although they work for all men, they do 
not work half so much for the rich, the 
strong, and the wise, as they do for the 
poor, the weak, and the ignorant. . . . 
There is not a truckman in New York that 
does not live better than Alexander lived. 
There is not a seamstress that does not have 
on her table things that would have made 
Queen Elizabeth stare. Take the bill of 
provender, I was going to say, of Shakes- 
peare's time. You might almost call it fodder, 
it was so coarse, and so much like animal's 
food. We should think ourselves treated 
worse than the prisoners at Sing Sing, if we 
had to live as the royalty did three or four 
hundred years ago. They would have been 
glad to live as our poor people live now, who 
are clothed better than they were, who have 
better houses than they had, and whose in- 
struments of labor necessitate less drudgery 
than theirs did. 

And that which is true of mechanic arts is 
also true of literature. If you go back to 
the time of Sterne and Swift, you shall not 



178 Patriotic Nuggets. 

find, I had almost said, a single generous, 
humanitarian sentiment in their writings. . . . 
The literature of the globe to-day is humane, 
at least, if it is not spiritual. 

More and more every year pictures are 
coming to be owned by persons of moderate 
and slender means, because they have an ap- 
petite for beauty, and must have beauty to 
feed it. 

Once nobody could own a book unless he 
had a fortune. Now a man that cannot 
afford to own a book ought to die. 

And as in respect to these elements, so in 
respect to learning and education. Always 
the rich have been able to educate their 
children. Not always have the poor been 
able to do it. But now everything is work- 
ing toward the education of the common 
people. 

Money, — will that buy you ? Then stand 
for liberty. A slave made free will pur- 
chase a hundred dollar's worth at your fac- 
tory where a slave in bondage will purchase 



Henry Ward Beecher. 179 

one dollar's worth. . . . The first state of a 
man, like the first state of a tree, may be 
simplicity, and he may be, as it were, a single 
whip ; but as he begins to grow he will 
throw out branches, and these branches will 
throw out other branches, and those will 
throw out others, and he will take in more 
by root and leaf. Every interest that makes 
money and intelligence pleads for a policy of 
liberty. 

Liberty Under Laws. 

December 28, 1862. 
What, then, is Liberty, — the source or 
fountain of which all other liberties are but 
streams or defluctions ? . . . . There can be 
no such thing as absolute liberty, — that is, 
the liberty of acting according to our own 
wishes, without hindrance and without 
limitation : for man is created to act by 
means of certain laws. ... As toward God, 
liberty means obedience to laws ; and it is 
only when we are disputed in the right of 
this obedience by men, that we begin to get 
an idea of liberty. 



I So Patriotic Nuggets. 

It is this obedience to law that makes such 
liberty safe, and gives society such benefits 
from it. If it was a liberty that gave a man 
a right to do anything that he pleased, it 
might be dangerous. It would then be what 
is in the Bible called licentiousness. But 
where it consists in the right of a man to 
follow out divine laws as they are written in 
him, then the more broad that liberty is, the 
more perfectly regulated and ordered and 
safe will the man's life be. 

It is a serious responsibility that goes with 
liberty : if you have it, you must use it in 
the fear of God for the good of others as 
well as for your own good. 

Speech in Manchester, England. 
October 9, 1863. 

Let me say one word here about the Con- 
stitution of America. It recognizes slavery 
as di fact ; but it does not recognize the 
doctrine of slavery in any way whatever. It 
was a fact ; it lay before the ship of state, as 
a rock lies in the channel of the ship as she 



H€7iry Ward Beecher. i8i 

goes into harbor ; and because a ship steers 
round a rock, does it follow that that rock is 
in the ship ? And because the Constitution 
of the United States made some circuits to 
steer round that great fact, does it follow 
that therefore slavery is recognized in the 
Constitution as a right or a system ? 

What was it, then, when the country had 
advanced so far towards universal emancipa- 
tion in the period of our national forma- 
tion, that stopped this onward tide ? Two 
things, commercial and political. First, the 
wonderful demand for cotton throughout 
the world, precisely when, from the invention 
of the cotton gin, it became easy to turn it 
to service. Slaves that before had been 
worth from three to four hundred dollars 
began to be worth six hundred dollars ; 
that knocked away one-third of adherence 
to the moral law. Then they became worth 
seven hundred dollars, — and half the law 
went ; then eight or nine hundred dollars, — 
and there was no such thing as moral law : 
then one thousand or twelve hundred 



1 82 Patriotic Nuggets. 

dollars,— and slavery became one of the 
Beatitudes. 



The institutions of America were shaped 
by the North ; but the policy of her govern- 
ment, for half a hundred years, by the 
South. . . . And now, since Britain has 
been snubbed by the Southerners, and 
threatened by the Southerners, and dom- 
ineered over by the Southerners — yet now 
Great Britain has thrown her arms of love 
around the Southerners and turns from the 
Northerners. [Cr/Vj of No, no/ ] She don't ? 
I have only to say that she has been caught 
in very suspicious circumstances. [Laughter 
and applause?\ I so speak, perhaps as much 
as anything else, for this very sake — to bring 
out from you this expression. ... I want 
you to say to me, and through me to my 
countrymen, that those irritations against the 
North, and those likings for the South, that 
have been expressed in your papers, are not 
the feelings of the great mass of your nation. 
{Great cheering, the audience rising.] Those 
cheers already sound in my ears as the com- 



Henry Ward Beccher. i S3 

ing acclamations of friendly nations — those 
waving handkerchiefs are the white banners 
that symbolize peace for all countries. 
{^Cheers ^^ Join with us then, Britons. 
{Cheers ?[ From you we learnt the doctrine 
of what a man was worth ; from you we 
learnt to detest all oppressions ; from you we 
learnt that it was the noblest thing a man 
could do to die for a right principle. And 
now, when we are set in that very course, 
and are giving our best blood for the most 
sacred principles, let the world understand 
that the common people of Great Britain 
support us. 

The question was put to the South, and 
with the exception of South Carolina, every 
State iji the South gave a popular vote 
against secession ; and yet, such was the 
jugglery of political leaders, that before a 
few months had passed, they had precipitated 
every State into secession. That never could 
have occurred had there been in the Southern 
States an educated common people. But the 
slave power cheats the poor whites of intel- 
ligence, in order to rob the poor blacks. 



184 Patriotic Nuggets. 

Against all these facts, it is attempted to 
make England believe that slavery has had 
nothing to do with this war. You might as 
well have attempted to persuade Noah that 
the clouds had nothing to do with the flood. 

Speech in Edinburgh, Scotland. 
October 24, 1863. 

If you let a steam engine, when it is full of 
steam, hiss at the rivets, with the scape- 
valve open, it cannot explode ; but if the 
steam is shut up, and the valve closed, it 
will be still for a moment, and then, like thun- 
der, it will go off ! So it was in regard to 
this subject [Abolition of Slavery]. Those 
who discussed it, became convinced of its 
truth ; but those who would not permit it to 
be spoken of, and shut it up, brought on ex- 
plosion. 

Farewell Breakfast, Manchester, 

England. October 24, 1863. 
I do not mean merely what you mean here 
by the "intelligent classes." The phrase 
with us includes farmers, mechanics, the very 



Henry Ward Beecher. 185 

bulk of our people. For it is the legitimate 
effect of democratic instruction, that no line 
can be drawn between the college-educated 
man at the top, and the common-school-ed- 
ucated man at the bottom. A thoroughly 
educated common people, with collegiate 
men to be their leaders and mouthpieces, in 
sympathy with them, — all moving together, — 
is better than any society where the bottom 
is ignorant, and the top is educated. 

Farewell Breakfast, Liverpool, 
England. October 30, 1863. 

It takes time for a great unorganized, and 
to a certain extent unvoting, public opinion, 
underneath institutions, to create that grand 
swell that lifts the whole ark up. 

Great Britain is herself undergoing a pro- 
cess of gradual internal change. All living 
nations are undergoing such changes. No 
nation abides fixed in institutions, until it 
abides in death. 

It is said that up to the time of the trouble 
of the Trent, England was with us, but from 



1 86 Patriotic Nuggets. 

that time she went rapidly over the other 
way. That was merely the occasion, but 
not the cause. I understand it to have been 
this — that there were a great many men and 
classes of men in England that feared the 
reactionary influences of American ideas 
upon the internal conflicts of England her- 
self. 

There is to be a commerce yet on this 
globe, compared with which all we have 
ever had will be but as the size of the hand 
compared with the cloud that belts the 
hemisphere. There is to be a resurrection 
of nations ; there is to be a civilization that 
shall bring even that vast populous conti- 
nent of Asia into new forms of life, with new 
demands. There is to be a time when lib- 
erty shall bless the nations of the earth and 
expand their minds in their own homes ; 
when men shall want more and shall buy 
more, . . . Instead, therefore, of wasting 
energy, peace, and manhood in miserable, 
petty jealousies, trans-Atlantic or cis-Atlan- 
tic, the business of England, as of America, 



Henry Ward Beecher. 187 

should be to strike those key-notes of lib- 
erty, to sound those deep chords of human 
rights, that shall raise the nations of the 
earth and make them better customers be- 
cause they are broader men. 

I do not say that our American example 
will reach to the essential reconstruction of 
any principles in your edifice. . . . There is 
a latent feeling that American ideas are in 
natural antagonism with aristocracy. They 
are not. American ideas are merely these — 
that the end of government is the benefit 
of the governed. . . . And if that idea is con- 
sistent with monarchy and aristocracy, why 
should you fear any change ? 

More than warehouses, more than ships, 
more than all harvests and every material 
form of wealth is the treasure of a nation in 
the manhood of her tnen. We could have 
afforded to have our stores of wheat 
burnt, — there is wheat to plant again. We 
could have afforded to have our farms 
burnt, — our farms can spring again from 
beneath the ashes. If we had sunk our 



1 88 Patriotic Nuggets. 

ships, — there is timber to build new ones. 
Had we burnt every house, — there is stone 
and brick left for skill again to construct 
them. Perish every material element of 
wealth, but give me the citizen intact : give 
me the man that fears God and therefore 
loves man, and the destruction of the mere 
outside fabric is nothing — nothing ! 

How many families do I know, in which 
once was the voice of gladness, where now 
mother and father sit childless ! How many 
heirs of wealth, how many scions of old 
families, well cultured, the heirs to every 
apparent prosperity in time to come, flung 
themselves into their country's cause, and 
died bravely fighting for it. And every such 
name has become a name of power, and who- 
ever hears it hereafter shall feel a thrill in his 
heart, — self devotion, heroic patriotism, love 
of his kind, love of liberty, love of God ! 

Home-Reception in Brooklyn. 
November 19, 1863. 
I do not hesitate to say, what I did not say 
in Great Britain, that, not for any material 



Hen7'y Ward BeecJier, 



reason, but for a moral reason, we need her ; 
and I say more than that, for moral reasons 
she needs us. For the sake of man, for the 
cause of God, for the hope of civilization, 
the two great nations of the earth, carrying 
a civilization which is derived from and 
which carries with it the common people 
and their uplifting in civilization — these two 
great Christian nations — • .... let these 
stand together to pour out to every part of 
the earth the influence of Christianity, civil- 
ization, and human liberty. 

Fort Sumter Flag-Raising. 

April 14, 1865. 
Rebellion has perished. But there flies 
the same flag that was insulted. With 
starry eyes it looks all over this bay for the 
banner that supplanted it, and sees it not. 
You that then, for the day, were humbled, 
are here again, to triumph once and forever. 
In the storm of that assault this glorious 
ensign was often struck ; but, memorable 
fact, not one of its stars was torn out, by 
shot or by shell. It was a prophecy ! 



190 Patriotic Nuggets. 

Reverently, piously, in hopeful patriotism, 
we spread this banner on the sky, as of old 
the bow was planted on the cloud; and, 
with solemn fervor, beseech God to look 
upon it, and make it the memorial of an 
everlasting covenant and decree that never 
again on this fair land shall a deluge of 
blood prevail. 

Rise up, then, glorious Gospel banner, 
and roll out these messages of God. Tell 
the air that not a spot now sullies thy white- 
ness. Thy red is not the blush of shame, 
but the flush of joy. Tell the dews that 
wash thee that thou art as pure as they. 
Say to the night, that thy stars lead toward 
the morning: and to the morning, that a 
brighter day arises with healing in its 
beams. And then, O glorious flag, bid the 
sun pour light on all thy folds with double 
brightness, whilst thou art bearing around 
and round the world the solemn joy — a race 
set free ! A nation redeemed ! 

A people educated and moral are compe- 
tent to all the exigencies of national life. 



Henry Ward Beecher, 191 

A vote can govern better than a crown. We 
have proved it. A people intelligent and 
religious are strong in all economic ele- 
ments. They are fitted for peace and 
competent to war. They are not easily 
inflamed ; and when justly incensed, not 
easily extinguished. They are patient in 
adversity, endure cheerfully needful burdens, 
tax themselves for real wants more royally 
than any prince would dare to tax his 
people. 

It is not our business to subdue nations, 
but to augment the powers of the common 
people. The vulgar ambition of mere dom- 
ination, as it belongs to universal human 
nature, may tempt us ; but it is withstood by 
the whole force of our principles, our habits, 
our precedents, and our legends. 

Abraham Lincoln. 

April 23, 1865. 
Lincoln was a man from the common 
people that never forgot his kind. And 
now that he who might not bear the march, 



192 Patriotic Nuggets. 

and the toil, and the battle with these hum- 
ble citizens has been called to die by the 
bullet, as they were, do you not feel that there 
was a peculiar fitness to his nature and life 
that he should in death be joined with them 
in a final common experience to whom he 
had been joined in all his sympathies ? 

Lincoln was slain ; America was meant. 
The man was cast down ; the government 
was smitten at. It was the President who 
was killed. It was national life, breathing 
freedom and meaning beneficence, that was 
sought. . . . The blow, however, has sig- 
nally failed. The cause is not stricken ; it is 
strengthened. This nation has dissolved — ■ 
but in tears only. It stands, four-square, 
more solid to-day than any pyramid in 
Egypt. This people are neither wasted, nor 
daunted, nor disordered. Men hate slavery 
and love liberty with stronger hate and love 
to-day than ever before. The government is 
not weakened, it is made stronger. How 
naturally and easily were the ranks closed ! 



He7iry Ward Beecher. 193 

Republican institutions have been vindi- 
cated in this experience as they never were 
before ; and the v^^hole history of the last 
four years, rounded up by this cruel stroke, 
seems now in the providence of God to have 
been clothed with an illustration, with a sym- 
pathy, with an aptness, and with a signifi- 
cance, such as we never could have expected 
or imagined. God, I think, has said, by the 
voice of this event, to all nations of the 
earth, '* Republican liberty, based upon true 
Christianity, is firm as the foundation of the 
globe." 

Conditions of a Restored Union. 
October 29, 1865. 

Suffrage in our community is not a privi- 
lege, or a prerogative, but a natural right. 
That is to say, if there is any such thing as a 
natural right, a man has a natural right to 
determine the laws that involve his life, and 
liberty, and property. ... It is not giving 
the colored man a privilege to allow him to 
vote ; it is developing a long dormant natural 
right. He has a right to citizenship because 



I 94 Patrwfic Nuggets. 

he is a man, unless he has forfeited it by 
crime. 

1 know there are many to whom this sub- 
ject is unwelcome, and who say, " It seems 
as though there never would be an end of 
this negro agitation." There are many that 
say, " Ever since I was born I have break- 
fasted, and dined, and supped upon this 
Negro. He is in the pulpit, in conventions, in 
caucuses, everywhere !".... Just as quick 
as you are willing to trust your own Ameri- 
can principles, just as quick as you put into 
practice your own American doctrine that 
all men are born equal, and have i?ialien- 
able rights^ he will sink out of notice as a 
vexation. 

Letter to the Cleveland (O.) 
Convention. August 30, 1866. 
Civilization is a growth. None can escape 
that forty years in the wilderness who travel 
from the Egypt of ignorance to the prom- 
ised land of civilization. The freedmen 
must take their march. I have full faith in 
the results. If they have the stamina to 



Henry Ward Beecher. 195 

undergo the hardships which every uncivil- 
ized people has undergone in its upward 
progress, they will in due time take their 
place among us. That place cannot be 
bought, nor bequeathed, nor gained by 
sleight of hand. It will come to sobriety, 
virtue, industry, and frugality. 

Letter to a Parishioner. 

September 8, 1866. 
As I look back upon my course, I see no 
deviation from the straight line which I have 
made, without wavering, for now thirty years 
in public life, in favor of justice, liberty, and 
the elevation of the poor and ignorant. . . . 
Not by the luster of arms, even in a just 
cause, would I seek her [the Nation's] glory, 
but by a civilization that should carry its 
blessings down to the lowest classes, and 
nourish the very roots of society by her moral 
power and purity, by her public conscience, 
her political justice, and by her intelligent 
homes, filling up a continent, and rearing a 
virtuous and noble citizenship. 



196 Patriotic Nuggets. 

National Unity. 

November 18, 1869. 
As the Nile in its great annual rise brings 
down something of the soil of every forma- 
tion through a thousand miles, and deposits 
it as slime for the sun to turn to soil and 
fruitfulness ; as the Mississippi with its 
great tributary, the Missouri, carries to the fat 
regions around its delta a tribute gathered 
from almost every point of latitude and 
longitude on the continent, so upon these 
United States, with annual deposit, come the 
immigrating freshets of the world. It falls 
upon us like mud. It shall be our richest 
soil. When it is aerated, and when intelli- 
gence and religion and liberty shall have 
penetrated it, it will be most precious. 

Our institutions are the best if they are 
the best served ; but the poorest if poorly 
served. Republican institutions demand en- 
ergetic and virtuous citizens. 

Knowledge is that which a man knows. 
Intelligence is that which knows it. Know- 



Henry Ward Beecher. 197 

ledge bears the same relation to intelligence 
which invested wealth does to that spirit of 
enterprise which creates wealth. . . . Mere 
knowledge will not save men. Intelligence 
is a preservative force. 

The problems of an old society and of a 
new one are not the same. Intelligence is 
of more value to us than high culture, 
though high culture may be more valuable to 
an old monarchy than general intelligence ; 
and of more value to us, by and by, than 
just now. It is giving eyes to the whole 
people to give them intelligence. 

Democracy does not mean a universal 
level. It does not mean compulsory equal- 
ity. It means equitable opportunity. . . . 
There is a public sentiment of the public 
school which is just as real, and as vital, and 
as despotic even, as the public sentiment of 
the great community ; and it is a good thing 
to bring down to the original starting point 
all the elevations and inequalities which the 
various forces of active life produce, and to 
say to all the boys, " Your feet must stand 



198 Patriotic Nuggets, 

on the same level : now shoot your heads as 
high as you please ! " 

You cannot anywhere else so ill afford to 
be parsimonious, and call it economy, as in 
the administration of your common-schools. 

Secure more buildings, larger buildings, 
better furniture, more teachers, with ampler 
support (for the support of the common- 
school teachers, especially of women teachers, 
is a shame and disgrace to our civilization), 
with more capacity, bringing hither the 
noblest men and the noblest women. This 
is political wisdom. 

Things belonging to any single State alone, 
and not to all the States in common, must 
be under the supreme disposal of that State. 
This simple doctrine of State Rights — not 
State Sovereignty — will carry good govern- 
ment with it through all the continent. No 
central government could have sympathy and 
wise administrative adaptation to the local 
peculiarities of this huge nation, couched 
down between two oceans, whose Southern 



Henry Ward Beecher, 199 

line never freezes, and whose Northern bor- 
der never melts. 

The States are so many points of vitality. 
The nation, Hke a banyan tree, lets down a 
new root where each new State is established, 
and when centuries have spread this gigantic 
commercial tree over a vast space, it will be 
found that the branches most remote from 
the center do not draw their vitality through 
the long intricate passages from the parent 
trunk, but each outlying growth has roots of 
its own, and draws straight from the ground, 
by organisms of its own, all the food it wants 
without dissociating its top from the parent 
branches. 

Past Perils and Perils of To-Day. 
November 29, 1877. 
The Hebrew literature is colored with in- 
tense patriotism .... This whole human 
life on earth was to them the symbol of the 
wanderings of " strangers and pilgrims " ; 
and when, at length, a clear conception of 
another life dawned, they called Heaven the 



200 Patriotic Ntiggets. 

Nciv Jerusalem. Thus the heaven and the 
earth, time and eternity, were dressed out in 
the robes of their national history. 

It was a wholesome practice. It harvested 
every great deed and achievement of their 
race, and made it seed-corn for the future ; 
it trained their children to heroism, to pa- 
triotism, to a religion which enshrined them 
both. 

The peculiarity of our early ancestry was 
not that they loved liberty — everything in 
heaven, on earth, and in the sea does that ; 
but they discerned the royal fact, which others 
had missed who threw off law to find liberty, 
that by taking on law men are made free. 

Human nature is the toughest thing that 
man ever works on. To take four million 
men of an inferior race, educated in the 
school of slavery and, by a constitutional 
vote of the people, make them as if they had 
never been ignorant slaves, is impossible ; 
and if men have expected it, it only shows 
to what overfed enthusiasm they were led. 



Henry Ward Bccchcr. 



Men grow ; and of all growths there is 
othing that grows so slowly as manhood. 
?he reason why it grows so slowly is that 
bere is so much of it, that it is so subtle/"^, 
nd that is so precious in its results — for the \ 
est things are the scarcest, and are the long- I 
st in coming to perfection. 

There is a danger from suppressed repudia- 
ion. . . . And suppressed repudiation is 
,11 the more dangerous than any open and 
vowed repudiation. . . . Whoever tam- 
>ers with established standards tampers 
^nth the very marrow and vitality of public 
aith. 

No act of Congress can ever make one 
)ound equal to two pounds. No act of Con- 
;^ress can ever make a thing inferior equal 
o a superior. Silver coin must be made pro- 
)ortionate to the value of gold, as deter- 
nined in the open markets of the world, 
ill paper currency must be convertible into 
^old. Any other course is to teach men to 
:heat by law ; it is to teach honest men to 
:heat without knowing that they cheat ; it is 



,o. Patriotic Nuggets. 

crime and misdemeanor : and if men m Con- 
gress do not know it. what are they there for ? 

TO THE SOCIETY OF THE ARMY OF ; 

THE POTOMAC. June, 187»- 

Every soldier should be a citizen, every 
citfrn Ihould be a soldier. An army ought 
"be a body foreign to the commu.y 

in which it exists, but sprung J™"' '^^f ' ^ . 
ing to it, continually returnmg to it and pen ^ 
etrating it with its own spirit. | 

national peace society. 



Henry Ward Beec her. 203 



This nation is indebted to the West Point 
Mihtary Academy for as noble a band of 
graduates as the world can produce. The 
standard of honor is nowhere higher Re- 
spect and reverence for law and hberty are 
nowhere more profound. Scrupulous fidel- 
ity to duty is nowhere more nearly a reli- 
gion. . . . What university, what college, 
what theological seminary, can point to its 
two thousand graduates and say, " There 
has never been an instance of dishonesty in 
the administration of public moneys?" 
The only institution in this country that can 
say this is that Academy. 

Eulogy on Grant. 

October 22, 1885. 
First came the disbanding of the army. 
That was so easily done that the world has 
never done justice to the marvel. The 
I soldiers of three great armies dropped their 
j arms at the word of command, dissolved 
I their organizations, and disappeared. To- 
day the mightiest force on earth ; to-morrow 
they were not ! As a summer storm dark- 



2o^ Patriotic Nuggets- 

:;:h Hs thunder, empties ^^^ ^ 

there a cabal of officers, nor any affray ol 
loldLl-for every soldier was yet more a 

citizen. 



f 



The tidings of Grant's death, long expec d . 
.ave a shoclc to the whole world. Govern 
f.ents, rulers, eminent statesman, and schol- 
ars from all civilized nations gave smcere j 
tokens of sympathy. For the hour, sym- . 
pathy roUedVwave over all our own land 
U closed the last furrow of .«»■■■ "^''"" \ 
euished the last prejudice, it effaced he . 
fa'vestige of hatred,-and cursed be the , 
hand that shall bring them back , 

Johnston and Buckner [of the Conleder 
ates] on one side of his bier, Sherman and , 
Sheridan [of the Federals] upon the oAe 

hP has come to his tomb a silent symbol 
that ifberThad conquered slavery, patriot- , 
ism rebellion, and peace war. 



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